
GETTYSBURG-PICKETTS CHARGE 



AND 



Other War Addresses 



BY 



JUDGE JAMES F. CROCKER 




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JAMES FRANCIS CROCKER 



GETTYSBURG-PICKETTS CHARGE 



AND 



Other War Addresses 



BY 

JUDGE JAMES F. CROCKER 



PORTSMOUTH, VA.: 

W. A. Fiskb, Printer and Bookbinder: 

1915. 



CONTENTS 

JAMES FRANCIS CROCKER 

A short Biography taken from 
"Men of Mark in Virginia," Vol. IV, page 79 



MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCES IN TAKING 

UP ARMS AND IN THE BATTLE 

OF MALVERN HILL 



GETTYSBURG— PICKETT'S CHARGE 



PRISON REMINISCENCES 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
COLONEL JAMES GREGORY HODGES 



OUR CONFEDERATE DEAD 



APPENDIX 
CITIZENSHIP— ITS RIGHTS AND DUTIES 



JAMES FRANCIS CROCKER 



THE FOLLOWING SHORT 
BIOGRAPHY IS TAKEN 
FROM "MEN OF MARK IN 
VIRGINIA," Volume IV, p. 79 



JAMES FRANCIS CROCKER 



"Crocker, James Francis, was born January 5, 
1828, at the Crocker home in Isle of Wight county, 
Virginia. His parental ancestors early settled in 
said county; and the home at which he was born 
had then been in the possession of his lineal ances- 
tors for upwards of a century. His father was 
James Crocker, the son of William Crocker and 
Elizabeth Wilson. William Crocker was a wealthy 
farmer and was major of militia. Elizabeth Wilson 
was the daughter of Willis Wilson, of Surry, and 
Sarah Blunt, of Blunt's Castle, Isle of Wight 
county. Willis Wilson was a prominent citizen of 
his county, a member of the committee of safety 
of 1776, and first lieutenant in the company of 
which William Davies was captain in the 1st state 
regiment of Virginia, commanded by Patrick 
Henry. He was a grandson of Nicholas Wilson 
and Margaret Sampson, and a member of the 
county court, sheriff, coroner, major of militia and 
vestryman. Margaret Sampson Wilson received 
donations from Lieutenant-Colonel James Powell 
and William Archer as expressions of high esteem. 

"Frances Hill Woodley, the mother of James F. 
Crocker, was the daughter of Major Andrew 
Woodley and Elizabeth Hill Harrison. Her 
paternal immigrant ancestor was Andrew Wood- 
ley, who settled in Isle of Wight in 1690, and, in 
1693, bought the tract of land, which became the 



8 



ancestral home, known as "Four Square," and 
which since 1693 has remained in the family. 
Through her mother she is descended from 
Humphrey Marshall, Thomas Hill, and the Harri- 
sons of Isle of Wight. 

"James F. Crocker was only six months old 
when his father died. He received his early educa- 
tion in the classical schools of Smithfield, Virginia. 
He then entered Pennsylvania college, at Gettys- 
burg, Pennsylvania, and was graduated in 1850, 
being the valedictorian of his class. He taught 
school — was professor of mathematics in Madison 
college — studied law, and was admitted to the bar 
of Isle of Wight in 1854. In 1855 he was elected 
to the house of delegates from Isle of Wight 
county. In 1856, after his service in the legisla- 
ture, at the instance of mutual friends, he moved 
to Portsmouth, to enter upon a co-partnership in 
the practice of law, previously arranged with 
Colonel David J. Godwin. The firm of Godwin 
and Crocker was eminently successful, but the 
lawyer turned soldier in 1861, when Virginia 
seceded from the union. He was enthusiastically 
with his state in the resumption of her delegated 
rights, and gave the Confederacy patriotic service 
as a private and as adjutant of the 9th Virginia 
infantry. He was desperately wounded at Malvern 
Hill, and was wounded and taken prisoner in 
Pickett's charge at Gettysburg. 

"After the war was over he continued his prac- 
tice as a lawyer, but on February 1, 1880, his part- 
nership with Colonel Godwin was dissolved by the 



latter becoming judge of the corporation court of 
the city of Norfolk. He then practiced alone until 
1896, when he formed partnership with his 
nephew, Frank L. Crocker, under the firm name 
and style of Crocker and Crocker. This partner- 
ship was dissolved January 1, 1901, when he 
entered upon the duties of the office of judge of 
the court of hustings for the city of Portsmouth. 
He accepted this office at the urgent instance of 
the bar and citizens of his city, and at the close 
of his term declined re-election. On his retirement 
from the bench he was honored by the bar of his 
court with the presentation of a silver loving cup 
with the inscription : 

"To 

"James Francis Crocker 

"Judge Court of Hustings 1901-1907. 

"Esteem and affection of the Bar of 

"Portsmouth, Va. 

"In politics he has always been an ardent Dem- 
ocrat of the Jeffersonian states rights school, and 
maintains that in making her defence, in 1861, 
Virginia was within her right and duty. He has 
written and published three addresses touching his 
experience and observation in the war: "Gettys- 
burg — Pickett's Charge," "My Experience in 
Taking up Arms and in the Battle of Malvern 
Hill," and "Prison Reminiscences." These may 
be found in the 33rd and 34th volumes of "South- 
ern Historical Society Papers." He also published 



10 



a companion address to them : "The Rights and 
Duties of Citizenship growing out of the dual 
nature of our Government, Federal and State." 

"Among the positions he has held are the fol- 
lowing: Member of the city council; president 
of Portsmouth and Norfolk County Monument 
Association, which early erected the beautiful 
Confederate monument in the city of Portsmouth ; 
commander of Stonewall Camp, C. V., brigadier- 
general of the first brigade of the Virginia division 
of the United Confederate Veterans, state visitor 
to Mount Vernon Association, member of the 
board of visitors of William and Mary College. 
Among the honors that have come to him, he 
values most highly his recent election to member- 
ship of the Phi Beta Kappa society of the mother 
college of the society — William and Mary. 

"He is a member of Trinity Episcopal Church, 
is one of its wardens, and has, for several years, 
represented it in the diocesan council of Southern 
Virginia. 

"On June 28, 1866, he married Margaret Jane 
Hodges, daughter of General John Hodges and 
Jane Adelaide Gregory. She died July 25, 1896. 
Their only child, James Gregory Crocker, died 
August 12, 1868, at the age of six months." 



My Personal Experiences in Taking Up 

Arms and in the Battle of 

Malvern Hill 



AN ADDRESS BEFORE 
STONEWALL CAMP 
CONFEDERATE VETERANS 
PORTSMOUTH : VIRGINIA 
FEBRUARY 6TH, 1889 



MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCES IN TAKING 

UP ARMS AND IN THE BATTLE 

OF MALVERN HILL 



Commander and Comrades: 

It is my turn, by appointment, to give tonight 
reminiscences of the war. It is expected, as I 
understand it, that these reminiscences may be 
largely personal and that it is not to be considered 
in bad taste to speak of one's self. In fact our 
soldiers lives were so much the same, our expe- 
riences and performances, our aspirations and de- 
votion to our cause were so common to each and 
all, that to speak of one's self is to tell the story 
of the rest. 

Let it be understood at once that no true soldier 
can speak of himself and of his services in the Con- 
federate Army, however humble the sphere of his 
service, without a tone of self commendation. And 
if I seem to speak in self praise, remember I but 
speak of each of you. Comrades ! I would esteem 
it the highest honor to stand an equal by your 
side. For here before me are men — heroes — in 
courage and in patriotism equal to those who fell 
at Thermopylae — who with those to whose sacred 
memory yon monument is erected, aided in achiev- 
ing a lustre of arms such as is not recorded in all 
the annals of the past. 

The one thing in my personal history touching 
the war which I recall with most delisrht and hold 



14 



in my supremest pride and satisfaction before all 
else, is the ardor with which I took up arms. This 
ardor was not the mere ebullient force of a pas- 
sionate excitement, but the inspiration of unques- 
tioning conviction that our duty to ourselves, to 
posterity, to our State, imperiously demanded that 
we should at all hazards and whatever might be 
the outcome, take up arms in defence of our rights 
as a free, independent and liberty-loving people 
and to repel any invasion of our soil by hostile 
forces. You recall the glow of this ardor — ■ you 
felt it — it burned in every true heart of the South. 
May those who come after us ever bear it in hon- 
orable memory, for it was a most sacred feeling, 
akin to what we feel for our religion and our God 
in our most devout moments. 

It was a bitter alternative that was presented to 
Virginia, either to submit unresistingly and uncon- 
ditionally to the determined and persistent en- 
croachments on her equality under the Constitu- 
tion, or to withdraw herself from the Union of the 
States which she had been chiefly instrumental in 
forming and which for that reason, she, more than 
all the other States, loved pre-eminently. She did 
all she could to avert this alternative. She sent 
her most illustrious citizens to Washington to im- 
plore for adjustment, for peace and for the per- 
petuity of the Union. Their petition was most 
haughtily disregarded. Notwithstanding this, she, 
through her people in solemn convention as- 
sembled, repressing all resentment, still stood 
majestically calm, though deeply moved, with her 



15 



hand on the bond of the Union, refusing to untie 
it. And thus she stood until she was summoned 
to take up arms against her kindred people of the 
South and to receive on her soil an advancing hos- 
tile force. Put to this alternative, she resumed 
her delegated rights and sovereignty. In that 
solemn act, I was passionately with her with my 
whole soul and mind. And standing here tonight 
after the lapse of upwards of a quarter of a cen- 
tury, summing up all she suffered and lost in war 
— in the waste of property, in the desolation of 
homes and in the blood of her sons, and also fully 
realizing the blessings of the restored Union, I 
still declare from the deepest depth of my convic- 
tions, that she was right. Yes, I rejoice that my 
whole being responded in approval and applause 
of that act of my State. I rejoice in recalling with 
what willingness I was ready to give my life in its 
support, and it is the summation of the pride of 
my life that I served humbly in her cause. 

Well do I remember that memorable day, the 
20th of April, 1861. Animated by the feeling I 
have described, fully realizing the immediate im- 
minence of strife, and determined to be ready for 
it how soon soever it might come, at my own ex- 
pense I armed myself with musket and accoutre- 
ments, took my stand at the Ocean House corner, 
and there with eagerness awaited the first beat of 
the first drum that sounded in Virginia the first 
call to arms. 

You remember the profound interest and emo- 
tion of that hour. It stifled all light feelings, and 



16 



gave to each brow a thoughtful aspect, and to each 
eye a depth of light which comes only when the 
heart is weighed with great moving concern. Men 
pressed in silence each others hands, and spoke in 
tones subdued by the solemnity and intensity of 
their inexpressible feelings. All knew that when 
that long roll once sounded, it would thrill the 
land, and that it would not cease to be heard, day 
or night, until silenced in victory or defeat. The 
long roll beat ; and the vulcan sounds of destruc- 
tion in the navy yard, and the flames of burning 
buildings and blazing ships told that an unpro- 
claimed war had commenced. 

Comrades, is it all a dream? Sometimes to me 
and doubtless sometimes to you, absorbed and en- 
vironed as we are by the present, the war seems 
a mystical and mysterious thing, and we feel that 
its reality is in some way slipping from us. If in 
us who were its active participants there may be 
such tendency, what must it be in those who are 
taking our places. It is on account of this ten- 
dency to lose the reality and meaning of the great 
war that I have dwelt on this part of my theme. 
And I cannot allow this occasion to pass without 
availing myself of it — the occasion of the organ- 
ization of "Sons of Veterans," who are now before 
me — to say to them : Believe and know that your 
State and your fathers in taking up arms, were 
right. Fail never to know and learn to know that 
the posterity of no race or people have inherited 
from their fathers such a legacy of true patriot- 
ism, such sublime devotion to duty, such imperish- 



17 



able wealth of arms as you have received from 
yours, and let the precious memory of this enoble 
you, enrich your spirit, and make you the worthy 
inheritors of their fame and glory. 

The personal reminiscence of the war which I 
next most value and cherish is the feeling with 
which we made that memorable charge at Malvern 
Hill. It was our first battle, for the occurences in 
which we shared at Seven Pines, did not amount 
to an engagement. It can never be indifferent to 
note the feelings with which a soldier enters his 
first battle. Of all things battle is the most ter- 
rible. And to us life is the dearest thing, and the 
love of life is by nature made the first law of our 
being. We instinctively shrink from imperilling 
our lives, and yet with what glad shout we have 
seen soldiers rush into the fiercest battles. What 
a glorious thing is manhood ! How God-like is the 
devotion of man to duty — to a cause — in cheer- 
fully giving up life to its service. What a noble 
and master passion is patriotism. How it exalts 
and glorifies man. To have once felt it propitiates 
one's self esteem and makes us ever a hero to our- 
selves. Shall I say it? Yes, for it can be equally 
said of each of you who were there. I have ever 
seemed to myself to have been a hero at Malvern 
Hill — if to be hero is to feel the loftiest enthu- 
siasm of patriotism — to disdain danger — to stand 
in the raging storm of shot and shell with a glad 
sense of duty and privilege to be there, and to be 
unreservedly willing to meet death for the good 



18 



of one's country. All this you felt with me on 
that memorable charge. 

It was in this spirit of devotion, the good, the 
brave and the loved Vermillion gave there to his 
country his life. This hero's name bids us pause. 
How tenderly we all remember him as the warm, 
generous, frank hearted friend. Brave and chival- 
rous in spirit, ardent and devoted to duty, graceful 
in deportment, manly in character, true and proud 
in self-respect, he commanded the admiration and 
love of all who knew him. In peace and in war — 
at home and in camp, he was the same true, manly 
man. He was ardently patriotic and was passion- 
ately devoted to his State and to its cause. He fell 
while gallantly leading his company on this charge. 
He fell in the flush of young manhood when life 
to him was full of high hopes and full of all the 
sweet endearments of home. He cheerfully gave 
his life to his country, and his blood was a willing 
libation to its cause. As among the departed 
braves Heaven tenderly keeps his happy spirit, so 
may his memory be ever lovingly cherished among 
the living. In this same spirit of devotion there 
fell Prentis, Dozier, Lewer, Parker, Bennett, 
Fiske, White and others dear in the memory of 
us all. 

Let us recall the part which our own regiment, 
the Ninth Virginia, took in this memorable charge. 
Armistead's Brigade, to which our regiment be- 
longed, were the first troops to reach the imme- 
diate vicinity of Malvern Hill, arriving there at 
10 A. M. Tuesday, July 1st, 1862. On arrival our 



19 



regiment was detached from the brigade to guard 
a strategic point and did not rejoin it until after 
the battle. From 10 A. M. to 5 P. M. we lay ex- 
posed to the shells of the enemy. At this hour we 
were sent for and conducted to a deep wooded 
ravine which ran along the very edge of the open 
field on which the enemy had made a stand, and 
where they had planted many batteries and massed 
a great body of infantry. When we took our posi- 
tion in the ravine we found that General Magruder 
was there in command with a considerable force, 
all lying down in successive lines on the steep 
sloping side of the ravine. Nearest its brow was 
Cobb's Legion ; next to them and almost in touch- 
ing distance was Wright's brigade ; next below 
them was our own gallant regiment forming a line 
by itself; below us was Mahone's brigade and other 
forces — near us were Generals Magruder, Cobb, 
Wright and Armistead. The day was fast declin- 
ing. The deep shade of the majestic trees with 
which the valley was filled and the smoke of the 
enemy's guns brought on twilight dimness before 
the close of day. As we lay in close rank, we 
marked the flash of exploding shells that kissed 
the brow of the ravine and lit it up with a weird 
light, while the incessant firing of the massed bat- 
teries filled the air with constant roar and deafen- 
ing crash. At one time, as the sun approached the 
horizon, the air seemed to change ; it gained a new 
elasticity — a clear ring, so that from the sound of 
the enemy's artillery you would have thought that 
they were approaching nearer to us. General 



20 



Magruder must have also thought so, for he gave 
direction that some men should ascend the brow 
of the hill and see if the enemy were advancing. 
The enemy had not and were not advancing, but 
from an elevation in the open field they poured 
from their batteries a living fire and a constant 
flow of shells. 

The scene was solemn and grandly inspiring. 
We felt that the very genius of battle was astir, 
and the martial spirit was thoroughly aroused. All 
waited with impatience for the order to charge — 
that order which whenever given either fires the 
heart or pales the face of the soldier. At last 
Magruder gives the order. It is first repeated by 
General Cobb, and his brave Legion with a shout 
that for the moment drowned the roar of the artil- 
lery, arose and rushed forward. Then Wright re- 
peats the order to his brigade, and as quick as 
thought his men spring forward. Then came from 
General Armistead: "Ninth Virginia, charge!" 
The men arose with a shout — a joyous shout that 
rose above the din of battle and with a passionate 
enthusiasm we rushed forward. Danger seemed 
to be banished from every bosom. Victory and 
glory absorbed every other feeling. We rushed on 
and forward to within a short distance of the 
crown of the hill on which the enemy was massed. 
On us was concentrated the shell and cannister of 
many cannon and the fire of compact masses of 
infantry. It was murderous and a useless waste of 
life to go further. Our regiment was halted and 
it took position in line with other troops which 



21 



had preceded us in the charge along and under the 
slope of the field, and here held its ground until 
the morning disclosed that the enemy had left. 
This gallant charge immortalized the Ninth Vir- 
ginia and gave it a fame which it was its pride ever 
after to maintain in all the great battles in which 
it was engaged. 

On this charge there came to me a new expe- 
rience — a common experience on the battlefield 
— that of being wounded. When our regiment 
had taken its position just described by moving to 
the right, I found myself on its extreme left stand- 
ing up on an open field in the face of the enemy 
a short distance off with a storm of shot and shell 
literally filling the air. I remember as I stood 
there I looked upon the enemy with great admira- 
tion. They were enveloped in the smoke of their 
guns and had a shadowy appearance, yet I could 
easily discern their cross belts, and I watched them 
go through the regular process of loading and fir- 
ing. They seemed to be firing with as much 
steadiness and regularity as if on dress parade. It 
was a grand sight and I was impressed with their 
courage and discipline. I had not then learned the 
wisdom and duty of a soldier to seek all allowable 
protection from danger. I had a foolish pride to 
be and to appear fearless — as if it were a shame 
to seem to do anything to avoid dang-er. I remem- 
ber that immediately on my right a soldier had 
sheltered himself behind a low stump. While 
silently approving his conduct in this respect yet 
apprehending he might only shelter himself, I said 



22 



to him, "Do not fail to fire on the enemy." I had 
scarcely uttered these words when I heard and felt 
that sounding thud of the minie ball which became 
so familiar to our soldiers. My left arm fell to my 
side and the blood streamed from my throat. I 
staggered and would have fallen had not two mem- 
bers of the Old Dominion Guard stepped quickly 
up and caught me and bore me off the field. I was 
shot through the throat, through the shoulder and 
through the arm. And I today wear six scars from 
wounds then received, scars more prized by me 
than all the ribbons and jewelled decorations of the 
kingly grant. When Moses P. Young and James 
H. Robinson came to my relief I delivered to them 
what was my first and what I then regarded my 
last and dying request, for I then thought the 
wound through my throat must soon prove mortal. 
It was in these words which I have ever since 
borne freshly in memory : "Tell my friends at 
home that I did my duty." These words expressed 
all that was in me at that moment — friends they 
express all that is in my life. Well do I remember 
that supreme moment, how I was without fear, 
and was perfectly willing to die — to die the death 
of the patriot, — and how then came upon me the 
tender thought of home and of home friends, and 
all my earthly aspirations concentrated into the 
one wish that my memory might be kindly linked 
to the recognition that I gave my life honorably 
and bravely in duty to myself, to my country and 
to my God. 



Getty sburg— Pickett's Charge 



AN ADDRESS BEFORE 
STONEWALL CAMP 
CONFEDERATE VETERANS 
PORTSMOUTH : VIRGINIA 
NOVEMBER 7TH, 1894 



GETTYSBURG — PICKETT'S CHARGE 



You command me to renew an inexpressible sorrow, 
and to speak of those things of which we were a part 



It is now nearly thirty years since there died 
away on the plains of Appomattox the sound of 
musketry and the roar of artillery. Then and there 
closed a struggle as heroic as ever was made by a 
brave and patriotic people for home government 
and home nationality. The tragic story of that 
great struggle has ever since been to me as a 
sealed, sacred book. I have never had the heart 
to open it. I knew that within its lids there were 
annals that surpassed the annals of all past times, 
in the intelligent, profound, and all-absorbing 
patriotism of our people — in the unselfish and un- 
tiring devotion of an entire population to a sacred 
cause — and in the brilliancy and prowess of arms 
which have shed an imperishable glory and honor 
on the people of this Southland. Yet there was 
such an ending to such great deeds ! The heart of 
this great people, broken with sorrow, has watered 
with its tears those brilliant annals until every 
page shows the signs of a nation's grief. And with 
it all there are buried memories as dear and as 
sacred as the ashes of loved ones. No, I have had 
no heart to open the pages of that sacred yet tragic 
history. Not until you assigned me the duty of 



26 



saying something of Pickett's charge at the battle 
of Gettysburg have I ever read the official or other 
accounts of that great battle ; and when I lately 
read them my heart bled afresh, and my inward 
being was shaken to the deepest depths of sad, 
tearful emotions, and I wished that you had given 
to another the task you gave to me. 

On the 13th day of December, 1862, Burnside 
lead his great and splendidly equipped army down 
from the heights of Fredericksburg, crossed the 
Rappahannock, and gave battle to Lee. His army 
was repulsed with great slaughter and was driven 
back bleeding and mangled to its place of safety. 
The star of Burnside went down and out. General 
Hooker was called to the command of the Army of 
the Potomac. After five months of recuperation 
and convalescence, with greatly augmented num- 
bers and with every appliance that military art and 
national wealth could furnish in the perfect equip- 
ment of a great army, it was proclaimed with much 
flourish amidst elated hopes and expectancy, that 
his army was ready to move. To meet this great 
host Lee could rely for success only on the great 
art of war and the unfailing courage of his soldiers. 
Hooker crossed the Rappahannock and com- 
menced to entrench himself. Lee did not wait to 
be attacked, but at once delivered battle. The bat- 
tle of Chancellorsville was fought — ■ the most in- 
teresting battle of the war — in which the blended 
genius of Lee and Jackson illustrated to the world 
the highest achievement of generalship in the 
management of the lesser against the greatly su- 



27 



perior force. Again was the Army of the Potomac 
crushed and driven across the Rappahannock. 

And now there arose a great question in the 
camp and in the council of State. It was a ques- 
tion of statesmanship as well as of arms. The 
question was answered by Lee withdrawing his 
army from before Hooker and proceeding through 
the lower Shenandoah Valley to Pennsylvania, 
leaving the road to Richmond open to be taken by 
the enemy if he should still prefer the policy of 
"on to Richmond." The motive of this movement 
was two-fold — to relieve Virginia of the enemy by 
forcing him to defend his own country, and by a 
possible great victory to affect public opinion of 
the North, and thus to conquer peace. The first 
object was accomplished ; for as soon as Hooker 
discerned the movement of Lee, he hastened to fol- 
low and to put his army between Lee and Wash- 
ington. Had Lee gained a crushing victory Balti- 
more and Washington would have been in his 
power, and then in all probability peace would 
have ensued. Public opinion in the North was 
greatly depressed, and sentiments of peace were 
ready to assert themselves. An incident illustrated 
this. As we were marching from Chambersburg 
to Gettysburg, I observed some ladies near the 
roadway wave their handkerchiefs to our passing 
troops. It excited my attention and curiosity. I 
rode up to them and said, "Ladies, I observed you 
waving your handkerchiefs as if in cheer to our 
army. Why so? We are your enemies and the 
enemies of your country." They replied: "We 



28 



are tired of the war and want you to conquer 
peace." I was greatly impressed with their an- 
swer, and saw that there might be true patriotism 
in their act and hopes. 

The invasion of Pennsylvania was wise and pru- 
dent from the standpoint of both arms and states- 
manship. Everything promised success. Never 
was the Army of Northern Virginia in better con- 
dition. The troops had unbounded confidence in 
themselves and in their leaders. They were full of 
the fervor of patriotism — had abiding faith in 
their cause and in the favoring will of Heaven 
There was an elation from the fact of invading the 
country of an enemy that had so cruelly invaded 
theirs. The spirit and elan of our soldiers was be- 
yond description. They only could know it who 
felt it. They had the courage and dash to accom- 
plish anything — everything but the impossible. 
On the contrary, the Federal army was never so 
dispirited, as I afterwards learned from some of its 
officers. And this was most natural. They 
marched from the bloody fields of Fredericksburg 
and Chancellorsville, the scenes of their humiliat- 
ing and bloody defeat, to meet a foe from whom 
they had never won a victory. 

But alas, how different the result! Gettysburg 
was such a sad ending to such high and well 
assured hopes ! Things went untoward with our 
generals. And Providence itself, on which we had 
so much relied, seems to have led us by our mis- 
haps to our own destruction. 

The disastrous result of the campaign, in my 



29 



opinion, was not due to the generalship of Lee, but 
wholly to the disregard of his directions by some 
of his generals. The chief among these, I regret 
to say, was the failure of General Stuart to follow 
the order* of Lee, which directed him to move into 
Maryland, crossing the Potomac east or west of 
the Blue Ridge, as, in his judgment, should be best, 
and take position on the right of our column as it 
advanced. Instead of taking position on the right 
of our column as it advanced, Stuart followed the 
right of the Federal column, thus placing it be- 
tween himself and Lee. The consequence was that 
Lee from the time he crossed the Potomac had no 
communication with Stuart until after the battle 
on the 1st of July, when he heard that Stuart was 
at Carlisle, and Stuart did not reach Gettysburg 
until the afternoon of July 2d. Lee, referring to 
Stuart, says: "By the route he pursued the Fed- 
eral army was interposed between his command 
and our main body, preventing any communication 
with him until he arrived at Carlisle. The march 
toward Gettysburg was conducted more slowly 
than it would have been had the movements of the 
Federal army been known. "t These are solemn, 
mild words, but they cover the defeat at Gettys- 
burg. Had Lee known the movements of the 
Federal army he could easily have had his whole 
army concentrated in Gettysburg on the 1st of 
July, and could easily have enveloped and crushed 

*Lee's Report July 31, 1863, War Records, Series I, Vol. 
27, Part 2, p. 306. 
tld. p. 307. 



30 



the enemy's advanced corps, and then defeated 
Meade in detail. But as it was, the encounter of 
the advance of the Federal army was a surprise 
to Lee. 

Hill had on the 30th of June encamped with two 
of his divisions, Heth's and Pender's at Cashtown, 
about eight miles from Gettysburg. Next morning 
he moved with Heth's division, followed by Pen- 
der's toward Gettysburg. They encountered the 
enemy about three miles of the town. The enemy 
offered very determined resistance, but Heth's 
division, with great gallantry, drove him before it 
until it reached Seminary Heights, which over- 
looked Gettysburg. At this time, 2 p. m., Rodes' 
and Early's divisions of Ewell's corps — the first 
from Carlisle and the other from York, made their 
opportune appearance on the left of Heth and at 
right angles to it ; then Pender's division was 
thrown forward, and all advancing together drove 
the enemy from position to position, and through 
the town, capturing 5,000 prisoners, and putting 
the enemy to flight in great disorder. Referring 
to this juncture of affairs, Col. Walter H. Taylor, 
in his "Four Years With Genl. Lee," says: "Genl. 
Lee witnessed the flight of the Federals through 
Gettysburg and up the hills beyond. He then di- 
rected me to go to Genl. Ewell and to say to him 
that from the position he occupied he could see 
the enemy retiring over the hills, without organ- 
ization and in great confusion ; that it was only 
necessary to press 'those people' in order to secure 
possession of the heights, and that, if possible, he 



31 



wanted him to do this. In obedience to these in- 
structions I proceeded immediately to Genl. Ewell 
and delivered the order of Genl. Lee." Genl. 
Ewell did not obey this order. Those heights 
were what is known as Cemetery Hill, which was 
the key to the Federal position. The enemy after- 
ward, that night, with great diligence fortified 
those heights ; and subsequently the lives of thous- 
ands of our soldiers were sacrificed in the vain 
effort to capture them. It was a fatal disobedience 
of orders. What if Jackson had been there? Col. 
Taylor would not have had any order to bear to 
him. Lee would have witnessed not only the flee- 
ing enemy, but at the same time the hot pursuit of 
Stonewall Jackson. Ah ! if Stuart had been there, 
to give one bugle blast and to set his squadrons on 
the charge ! Alas ! he was then twenty-five miles 
away at Carlisle, ignorant that a battle was on. 

That afternoon after the fight was over, Ander- 
son's division of Hill's corps arrived on the battle 
field and took position where Pender formerly 
was. At sunset Johnson's division of Ewell's 
corps came up and took line of battle on Early's 
left, and about midnight McLaws' division and 
Hood's division (except Laws' brigade) of Long- 
street's corps encamped within four miles of Get- 
tysburg. The troops which had been engaged in 
the fight bivouacked on the positions won. I am 
thus particular to locate our troops in order to 
show who may be responsible for any errors of 
the next day. 

Inasmuch as Meade's army was not fully up, it 



32 



required no great generalship to determine that it 
would be to our advantage to make an attack as 
early in the next morning as possible. And it was 
no more than reasonable that every general having 
control of troops should feel and fully appreciate 
the imperious necessity of getting ready to do so 
and to be ready for prompt action. 

General Lee determined to make the main attack 
on the enemy's left early in the morning. This at- 
tack was to be made by Longstreet, who was di- 
rected to take position on the right of Hill and on 
the Emmittsburg road. After a conference with 
the corps and division commanders the previous 
evening, it was understood that this attack was to 
be made as early as practicable by Longstreet, and 
he was to be supported by Anderson and to receive 
the co-operation of Ewell. General Fitzhugh Lee 
in his "Life of Lee," says: "When Lee went to 
sleep that night he was convinced that his disposi- 
tions for the battle next day were understood by 
the corps commanders, for he had imparted them 
to each in person. On the morning of July 2, Lee 
was up before light, breakfasted and was ready for 
the fray." 

Can you believe it ? Can you even at this dis- 
tant day altogether suppress a rising indignation 
— that Longstreet did not get into line of battle 
until after 4 P. M., although he had the previous 
night encamped within four miles of Gettysburg? 
In the meanwhile Sickles had taken position in 
what is known as the Peach Orchard and on the 
Emmittsburg road, which were the positions as- 



33 



signed to Longstreet, and which he could have 
taken earlier in the day without firing a gun. The 
forces of the enemy had come up from long dis- 
tances — Sedgwick had marched thirty-four miles 
since 9 P. M., of the day before and had gotten 
into line of battle before Longstreet did. 

The attack was made. Sickles was driven from 
the Peach Orchard and the Emmittsburg road. 
Little Round Top and the Federal lines were pene- 
trated, but they were so largely reinforced that the 
attack failed after the most courageous effort and 
great expenditure of lives. It has been stated that 
if this attack had been made in the morning as di- 
rected, Lee would have won a great victory, and 
the fighting of the 3d would have been saved. The 
attack on the left also failed. There, too, the lines 
and entrenchments of the enemy were penetrated, 
but they could not be held for want of simulta- 
neous and conjoint action on the part of the com- 
manders. Col. Taylor, speaking of this, says : 
"The whole affair was disjointed." 

Thus ended the second day. General Lee de- 
termined to renew the attack on the morrow. He 
ordered Longstreet to make the attack next morn- 
ing with his whole corps, and sent to aid him in 
the attack of Heth's division under Pettigrew, 
Lane's and Scales' brigades of Pender's division 
under General Trimble, and also Wilcox's brigade, 
and directed General Ewell to assail the enemy's 
right at the same time. "A careful examination," 
says Lee, "was made of the ground secured by 
Longstreet, and his batteries placed in position. 



34 



which it was believed would enable them to silence 
those of the enemy. Hill's artillery and part of 
Ewell's was ordered to open simultaneously, and 
the assaulting column to advance under cover of 
the combined fire of the three. The batteries were 
directed to be pushed forward as the infantry pro- 
gressed, protect their flanks and support their at- 
tacks closely." Every word of this order was 
potentially significant. You will thus observe Lee's 
plan of attack. It was to be made in the morning 
— presumably in the early morning — with the 
whole of Longstreet's corps, composed of the 
divisions of Pickett, McLaws and Hood, together 
with Heth's division, two brigades of Pender and 
Wilcox's brigade, and that the assaulting column 
was to advance under the cover of the combined 
fire of the artillery of the three corps, and that the 
assault was to be the combined assault of infantry 
and artillery — the batteries to be pushed forward 
as the infantry progressed, to protect their flanks 
and support their attack closely. The attack was 
not made as here ordered. The attacking column 
did not move until 3 P. M., and when it did move 
it was without McLaws' and Hood's divisions and 
practically without Wilcox's brigade, and without 
accompanying artillery. The whole attacking force 
did not exceed 14,000, of which Pickett's division 
did not exceed 4,700. General Lee afterwards 
claimed that if the attack had been made as he 
ordered, it would have been successful. 

In order to appreciate the charge made by the 
attacking force, it is necessary to have some idea 



35 



of the relative strength and positions of the two 
armies, and of the topography of the country. 
Before the battle of Gettysburg opened on the 
1st of July, Meade's army consisted of seven army 
corps which, with artillery and' cavalry, numbered 
105,000. Lee's army consisted of three army 
corps which, with artillery and cavalry, numbered 
62,000. On the 3rd of July the enemy had six 
army corps in line of battle, with the Sixth corps 
held in reserve. Their right rested on Culp Hill 
and curved around westerly to Cemetery Hill, and 
thence extended southerly in a straight line along 
what is known as Cemetery Ridge to Round Top. 
This line was well protected along its whole length 
with either fortifications, stone walls or entrench- 
ments. It was crowned with batteries, while the 
infantry was, in places, several ranks deep, with a 
line in the rear with skirmish lines in front. The 
form of the line was like a shepherd's crook. Our 
line extended from the enemy's right to Seminary 
Ridge, which runs parallel to Cemetery Ridge, to 
a point opposite to Round Top. Between these 
two ridges lay an open, cultivated valley of about 
one mile wide, and through this valley ran the 
Emmittsburg road in a somewhat diagonal line, 
with a heavy fence on either side. The charge was 
to be made across this valley so as to strike the 
left centre of the enemy's line. The hope was that 
if we broke their line, we would swing around to 
the left, rout and cut off their right wing, where 
Stuart waited with his cavalry to charge upon 
them ; and thus destroy or capture them, and put 



36 



ourselves in possession of the Baltimore road and 
of a commanding position. 

Such were the plans of the assault and such was 
the position of the hostile forces. Lee's plan to 
make an assault was dangerous and hazardous, but 
he was pressed by the force of circumstances which 
we cannot now consider. The success of his plan 
depended largely on the promptness and co-opera- 
tion of his generals. Without this there could be 
little hope of success. He gave his orders and re- 
tired for tomorrow. 

All wait on the tomorrow. And now the 3d of 
July has come. The summer sun early heralded 
by roseate dawn, rises serenely and brightly from 
beyond the wooded hills. No darkening clouds 
obscure his bright and onward way. His aspect is 
as joyous as when Eden first bloomed under his 
rays. Earth and heaven are in happy accord. The 
song of birds, the chirp and motion of winged in- 
sects greet the early morn. The wild flowers and 
the cultivated grain of the fields are glad in their 
beauty and fruitage. The streams joyously ripple 
on their accustomed way, and the trees lift and 
wave their leafy branches in the warm, life-giving 
air. Never was sky or earth more serene — more 
harmonious — more aglow with light and life. 

In blurring discord with it all was man alone. 
Thousands and tens of thousands of men — once 
happy fellow countrymen, now in arms, had gath- 
ered in hostile hosts and in hostile confronting 
lines. It was not the roseate dawn nor rising sun 
that awoke them from the sleep of wearied limbs. 



37 



Before the watching stars had withdrawn from 
their sentinel posts, the long roll, the prelude of 
battle, had sounded their reveille, and rudely 
awoke them from fond dreams of home and loved 
ones far away. For two days had battle raged. 
On the first, when the field was open and equal, 
the soldiers of the South, after most determined 
resistance, had driven their foe before them from 
position to position — from valley to hill top, 
through field and through the town, to the heights 
beyond. On the second day, on our right and on 
our left, with heroic valor and costly blood, they 
had penetrated the lines and fortifications of the 
enemy, but were too weak to hold the prize of 
positions gained against overpowering numbers of 
concentrated reinforcements. The dead and 
wounded marked the lines of the fierce combat. 
The exploded caissons, the dismounted cannon, 
the dead artillery horses, the scattered rifles, the 
earth soaked with human gore — the contorted 
forms of wounded men, and the white, cold faces 
of the dead, made a mockery and sad contrast to 
the serene and smiling face of the skies. 

From the teamsters to the general in chief it was 
known that the battle was yet undecided — that 
the fierce combat was to be renewed. All knew 
that victory won or defeat suffered, was to be at 
a fearful cost — that the best blood of the land was 
to flow copiously as a priceless oblation to the god 
of battle. The intelligent soldiers of the South 
knew and profoundly felt that the hours were 
potential — that on them possibly hung the success 



38 



of their cause — the peace and independence of the 
Confederacy. They knew that victory meant so 
much more to them than to the enemy. It meant 
to us uninvaded and peaceful homes under our own 
rule and under our own nationality. With us it 
was only to be let alone. With this end in view, 
all felt that victory was to be won at any cost. All 
were willing to die, if only their country could 
thereby triumph. And fatal defeat meant much to 
the enemy. It meant divided empire — lost terri- 
tory and severed population. Both sides felt that 
the hours were big with the fate of empire. The 
sense of the importance of the issue, and the re- 
sponsibility of fully doing duty equal to the grand 
occasion, impressed on us all a deep solemnity and 
a seriousness of thought that left no play for gay 
moods or for sympathy with nature's smiling 
aspect, however gracious. Nor did we lightly con- 
sider the perils of our duty. From our position in 
line of battle, which we had taken early in the 
morning, we could see the frowning and cannon- 
crowned heights far off held by the enemy. In a 
group of officers, a number of whom did not sur- 
vive that fatal day, I could not help expressing that 
it was to be another Malvern Hill, another costly 
day to Virginia and to Virginians. While all fully 
saw and appreciated the cost and the fearful mag- 
nitude of the assault, yet all were firmly resolved, 
if possible, to pluck victory from the very jaws of 
death itself. Never were men more conscious of 
the difficulty imposed on them by duty, or more 
determinedly resolved to perform it with alacrity 



39 



and cheerfulness, even to annihilation, than were 
the men of Pickett's division on that day. With 
undisturbed fortitude and even with ardent impa- 
tience did they await the command for the assault. 
The quiet of the day had been unbroken save on 
our extreme left, where in the early morning there 
had been some severe fighting; but this was soon 
over, and now all on both sides were at rest, wait- 
ing in full expectancy of the great assault, which 
the enemy, as well as we, knew was to be delivered. 
The hours commenced to go wearily by. The ten- 
sion on our troops had become great. The mid- 
day sun had reached the zenith, and poured its 
equal and impartial rays between the opposite 
ridges that bounded the intervening valley running 
North and South. Yet no sound or stir broke the 
ominous silence. Both armies were waiting specta- 
tors for the great event. Upwards of one hundred 
thousand unengaged soldiers were waiting as from 
a grand amphitheatre to witness the most magnifi- 
cent heroic endeavor in arms that ever immortal- 
ized man. Still the hours lingered on. Why the 
delay? There is a serious difference of opinion be- 
tween the general in chief and his most trusted 
lieutenant general as to the wisdom of making the 
assault. Lee felt, from various considerations, the 
forced necessity of fighting out the battle here, and 
having the utmost confidence in his troops he fully 
expected victory if the attack be made as he had 
ordered. Longstreet, foreseeing the great loss of 
assaulting the entrenched position of the enemy 
and making such assault over such a distance 



40 



under the concentrated fire, urges that the army 
should be moved beyond the enemy's left flank, 
with the hope of forcing him thus to abandon his 
stronghold or to fight us to our advantage. Long- 
street pressed this view and delayed giving the 
necessary orders until Lee more pre-emptorily re- 
peated his own order to make the assault. Even 
then Longstreet was so reluctant to carry out the 
orders of Lee that he placed upon Lt.-Col. Alex- 
ander, who was in charge of the artillery on this 
day, the responsibility of virtually giving the order 
for its execution. 

At last, in our immediate front, at 1 P. M., there 
suddenly leaped from one of our cannons a single 
sharp, far-reaching sound, breaking the long-con- 
tinued silence and echoing along the extended 
lines of battle and far beyond the far-off heights. 
All were now at a strained attention. Then quick- 
ly followed another gun. Friend and foe at once 
recognized that these were signal guns. Then 
hundreds of cannon opened upon each other from 
the confronting heights. What a roar — how in- 
cessant ! The earth trembled under the mighty re- 
sound of cannon. The air is darkened with sul- 
phurous clouds. The whole valley is enveloped. 
The sun, lately so glaring, is itself obscured. Noth- 
ing can be seen but the flashing light leaping from 
the cannon's mouth amidst the surrounding smoke. 
The air which was so silent and serene is now full 
of exploding and screaming shells and shot, as if 
the earth had opened and let out the very furies of 
Avernus. The hurtling and death-dealing missiles 



41 



are plowing amidst batteries, artillery and lines of 
infantry, crushing, mangling and killing until the 
groans of the men mingle with the tempest's 
sound. The storm of battle rages. It is appalling, 
terrific, yet grandly exciting. It recalls the im- 
agery of Byron's night-storm amidst the Alps : 

"The sky is changed, and such a change ! * * * 

-f* Sp 'T 2 -T* *T* *T* *K *T* *r» *1^ *T» H 53 T* 53 1 O n O" 

From peak to peak, the rattling crags among 
Leaps the live thunder! Not from one lone cloud, 
But every mountain now hath found a tongue, 
And Jura answers from her misty shroud 
Back to the joyous Alps who call to her aloud." 

After two hours of incessant firing the storm at 
last subsides. It has been a grand and fit prelude 
to what is now to follow. All is again silent. Well 
knowing what is shortly to follow, all watch in 
strained expectancy. The waiting is short. Only 
time for Pickett to report to his lieutenant-general 
his readiness and to receive the word of command. 
Pickett said: "General, shall I advance?" Long- 
street turned away his face and did not speak. 
Pickett repeated the question. Longstreet, with- 
out opening his lips, bowed in answer. Pickett, in 
a determined voice, said: "Sir, I shall lead my 
division forward," and galloped back and gave the 
order, "Forward march !" The order ran down 
through brigade, regimental and company officers 
to the men. The men with alacrity and cheerful- 
ness fell into line. Kemper's brigade on the right, 
Garnett's on his left, with Heth's division on the 



42 



left of Garnett, formed the first line. Armistead's 
brigade moved in rear of Garnett's, and Lane's and 
Scales' brigades of Pender's division moved in the 
rear of Heth, but not in touch nor in line with 
Armistead. As the lines cleared the woods that 
skirted the brow of the ridge and passed through 
our batteries, with their flags proudly held aloft, 
waving in the air, with polished muskets and 
swords gleaming and flashing in the sunlight, they 
presented an inexpressibly grand and inspiring 
sight. It is said that when our troops were first 
seen there ran along the line of the Federals, as 
from men who had waited long in expectancy, the 
cry : There they come ! There they come ! The 
first impression made by the magnificent array of 
our lines as they moved forward, was to inspire 
the involuntary admiration of the enemy. Then 
they realized that they came, terrible as an army 
with banners. Our men moved with quick step as 
calmly and orderly as if they were on parade. No 
sooner than our lines came in full view, the 
enemy's batteries in front, on the right and on the 
left, from Cemetery Hill to Round Top, opened on 
them with a concentrated, accurate and fearful fire 
of shell and solid shot. These plowed through or 
exploded in our ranks, making great havoc. Yet 
they made no disturbance. As to the orderly con- 
duct and steady march of our men, they were as if 
they had not been. As the killed and wounded 
dropped out, our lines closed and dressed up, as if 
nothing had happened, and went on with steady 
march. I remember I saw a shell explode amidst 



43 



the ranks of the left company of the regiment on 
our right. Men fell like ten-pins in a ten-strike. 
Without a pause and without losing step, the sur- 
vivors dressed themselves to their line and our 
regiment to the diminished regiment, and all went 
on as serenely and as unfalteringly as before. My 
God ! it was magnificent — this march of our men. 
What was the inspiration that gave them this stout 
courage — this gallant bearing — this fearlessness 

— this steadiness — this collective and individual 
heroism? It was home and country. It was the 
fervor of patriotism — the high sense of individual 
duty. It was blood and pride of state — the in- 
herited quality of a brave and honorable ancestry. 

On they go — down the sloping sides of the 
ridge — across the valley — over the double fences 

— up the slope that rises to the heights crowned 
with stone walls and entrenchments, studded with 
batteries, and defended by multiple lines of pro- 
tected infantry. The skirmish line is driven in. 
And now there bursts upon our ranks in front and 
on flank, like sheeted hail, a new storm of missiles 

— canister, shrapnel and rifle shot. Still the col- 
umn advances steadily and onward, without pause 
or confusion. Well might Count de Paris describe 
it as an irresistible machine moving forward which 
nothing could stop. The dead and wounded — 
officers and men — mark each step of advance. 
Yet under the pitiless rain of missiles the brave 
men move on, and then with a rush and cheering 
yell they reach the stone wall. Our flags are 
planted on the defenses. Victory seems within 



44 



grasp, but more is to be done. Brave Armistead, 
coming up, overleaps the wall and calls on all to 
follow. Brave men follow his lead. Armistead is 
now among the abandoned cannon, making ready 
to turn them against their former friends. Our 
men are widening the breach of the penetrated and 
broken lines of the Federals. But, now the enemy 
has made a stand, and are rallying. It is a critical 
moment. That side must win which can command 
instant reinforcements. They come not to Arm- 
istead, but they come to Webb, and they come to 
him from every side in overwhelming numbers in 
our front and with enclosing lines on either flank. 
They are pushed forward. Armistead is shot down 
with mortal wounds and heavy slaughter is made 
of those around him. The final moment has come 
when there must be instant Might, instant surren- 
der, or instant death. Each alternative is shared. 
Less than 1,000 escape of all that noble division 
which in the morning numbered 4,700; all the rest 
either killed, wounded or captured. All is over. 
As far as possible for mortals they approached the 
accomplishment of the impossible. Their great 
feat of arms has closed. The charge of Pickett's 
division has been proudly, gallantly and right roy- 
ally delivered. 

And then, at once, before our dead are counted, 
there arose from that bloody immortalized field, 
Fame, the Mystic Goddess, and from her trumpet 
in clarion notes there rang out upon the ear of the 
world the story of Pickett's charge at Gettysburg. 
All over this country, equally North and South, 



45 



millions listened and returned applause. Over 
ocean Fame wing's her way. Along the crowded 
population and cities of Europe she rings out the 
story. The people of every brave race intently lis- 
ten and are thrilled. Over the famous battlefields 
of modern and ancient times she sweeps. Over the 
ruins and dust of Rome the story is heralded. 
Thermopylae hears and applauds. The ancient 
pyramids catch the sound, and summing up the 
records of their hoary centuries, searching, find 
therein no story of equal courage. Away over the 
mounds of buried cities Fame challenges, in vain, 
a response from their past. Over the continents 
and the isles of the sea the story runs. The whole 
world is tumultuous with applause. A new gen- 
eration has heard the story with undiminished ad- 
miration and praise. It is making its way up 
through the opening years to the opening cen- 
turies. The posterities of all the living will gladly 
hear and treasure it, and will hand it down to the 
end of time as an inspiration and example of cour- 
age to all who shall hereafter take up arms. 

The intrinsic merit of the charge of Pickett's 
men at Gettysburg, is too great, too broad, too im- 
mortal for the limitations of sections, of states, or 
of local pride. 

The people of this great and growing republic, 
now so happily reunited, have and feel a common 
kinship and a common heritage in this peerless ex- 
ample of American courage and American heroism. 

But let us return to the battlefield to view our 
dead, our dying and our wounded. Here they lie 



46 



scattered over the line of their march; here at the 
stone wall they lie in solid heaps along its foot ; 
and here within the Federal lines they are as 
autumnal leaves — each and all precious heroes — 
each the loved one of some home in dear, dear Vir- 
ginia. Now we seem to catch the sound of another 
strain. It is more human ; it touches pathetically 
more closely human hearts. It is the wailing voice 
of afflicted love. It is the sobbing outburst of the 
sorrow of bereavement coming up from so many 
homes and families, from so many kinsmen and 
friends; and with it conies the mournful lamenta- 
tions of Virginia herself, the mother of us all, over 
the loss of so many of her bravest and best sons. 

Of her generals Garnett is dead, Armistead is 
dying; and Kemper desperately wounded. Of her 
colonels of regiments six are killed on the field, 
Hodges, Edmonds, Magruder, Williams, Patton, 
Allen, and Owen is dying and Stuart mortally 
wounded. Three lieutenant-colonels are killed, 
Calcutt, Wade and Ellis. Five colonels, Hunton, 
Terry, Garnett, Mayo and Aylett, are wounded. 
Four lieutenant-colonels commanding regiments, 
Martin, Carrington, Otey and Richardson are 
wounded. Of the whole complement of field offi- 
cers in fifteen regiments only one escaped unhurt, 
Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph C. Cabell. The loss of 
company officers are in equal proportion. It is a 
sad, mournful summing up. Let the curtain fall on 
the tragic scene. 

But there are some of those who fell on that 



47 



field whom I cannot pass by with a mere enumera- 
tion. 

Gen. Lewis A. Armistead, the commander of 
our brigade, is one of these. Fortune made him 
the most advanced and conspicuous hero of that 
great charge. He was to us the very embodiment 
of a heroic commander. On this memorable day 
he placed himself on foot in front of his brigade. 
He drew his sword, placed his hat on its point, 
proudly held it up as a standard, and strode in 
front of his men, calm, self-collected, resolute and 
fearless. All he asked was that his men should fol- 
low him. Thus in front he marched until within 
about one hundred paces of the stone wall some 
officer on horseback, whose name I have never 
been able to learn, stopped him for some purpose. 
The few moments of detention thus caused were 
sufficient to put him for the first time in the rear 
of his advancing brigade. Then quickly on he 
came, and when he reached the stone wall where 
others stopped, he did not pause an instant — over 
it he went and called on all to follow. He fell, as 
above stated, amidst the enemy's guns, mortally 
wounded. He was taken to the Eleventh Corps' 
Hospital, and in a few days he died and was buried 
there. 

Another : Col. James Gregory Hodges, of the 
14th Virginia, of Armistead's brigade, fell instantly 
killed at the foot of the stone wall of the Bloody 
Angle, and around and over his dead body there 
was literally a pile of his dead officers around him, 
including gallant Major Poor. On the occasion of 



48 



the reunion of Pickett's Division at Gettysburg, 
1887, General Hunt, chief of the Federal artillery 
at this battle, who had known Col. Hodges before 
the war, pointed out to me where he saw him lying 
dead among his comrades. He led his regiment in 
this memorable charge with conspicuous courage 
and gallantry. He was an able and experienced 
officer. At the breaking out of the war he was 
Colonel of the Third Virginia Volunteers, and from 
20th April, 1861, until he fell at Gettysburg he 
served with distinguished ability, zeal and gal- 
lantry his State and the Confederacy. He was 
with his regiment in every battle in which it was 
engaged in the war. He commanded the love and 
confidence of his men, and they cheerfully and fear- 
lessly ever followed his lead. His memory deserves 
to be cherished and held in the highest esteem by 
his city, to which by his virtues, character and 
patriotic service he brought honor and considera- 
tion. 

Col. John C. Owens, of the Ninth Virginia. 
Armistead's Brigade, also of this city, fell mortally 
wounded on the charge, and died in the field hos- 
pital that night. He had been recently promoted 
to the colonelency of the regiment from the cap- 
taincy of the Portsmouth Rifles, Company G. As 
adjutant of the regiment I had every opportunity 
of knowing and appreciating Col. Owens as a man 
and officer. I learned to esteem and love him. He 
was intelligent, quiet, gentle, kind and considerate. 
Yet he was firm of purpose and of strong will. He 
knew how to command and how to require obedi- 



49 



ence. He was faithful, and nothing could swerve 
him from duty. Under his quiet, gentle manner 
there was a force of character surprising to those 
who did not know him well. And he was as brave 
and heroic as he was gentle and kind. Under fire 
he was cool, self-possessed, and without fear. He 
was greatly beloved and respected by his regiment, 
although he had commanded it for a very short 
time. He fell while gallantly leading his regiment 
before it reached the enemy's lines. He, too, is to 
be numbered among those heroes of our city, who 
left home, never to return; who after faithful and 
distinguished service, fell on the field of honor, 
worthy of the high rank he had attained, reflecting 
by his life, patriotism and courage, honor on his 
native city, which will never let his name and 
patriotic devotion be forgotten. 

John C. Niemeyer, First Lieutenant I, Ninth 
Virginia, was killed in that charge just before 
reaching the famous stone wall. He was a born 
soldier, apt, brave, dashing. He was so young, so 
exuberant in feeling, so joyous in disposition, that 
in my recollection of him he seems to have been 
just a lad. Yet he knew and felt the responsibility 
of office, and faithfully and gallantly discharged its 
duties. He was a worthy brother of the distingu- 
ished Col. W. F. Niemeyer, a brilliant officer who 
also gave his young life to the cause. 

And there, too, fell my intimate friend, John S. 
Jenkins, Adjutant of the Fourteenth Virginia. He, 
doubtless, was one of those gallant officers whom 
General Hunt saw when he recognized Colonel 



50 



Hodges immediately after the battle, lying dead 
where he fell, who had gathered around him, and 
whose limbs were interlocked in death as their 
lives had been united in friendship and comrade- 
ship in the camp. He fell among the bravest, 
sealed his devotion to his country by his warm 
young blood, in the flush of early vigorous man- 
hood when his life was full of hope and promise. 
He gave up home which was peculiarly dear and 
sweet to him, when he knew that hereafter his only 
home would be under the flag of his regiment, 
wherever it might lead, whether on the march, in 
the camp or on the battle field. His life was beauti- 
ful and manly — his death was heroic and glorious, 
and his name is of the imperishable ones of 
Pickett's charge. 

Time fails me to do more than mention among 
those from our city who were killed at Gettysburg: 
Lieut. Robert Guy, Lieut. George W. Mitchell, 
John A. F. Dundedale, Lemuel H. Williams, W. 
B. Bennett, John W. Lattimore, W. G. Monte, 
Richard J. Nash, Thomas C. Owens, Daniel Byrd, 
John Cross and Joshua Murden — heroes all — 
who contributed to the renown of Pickett's charge, 
gave new lustre to the prowess of arms, and laid a 
new chaplet of glory on the brow of Virginia, 
brighter and more immortal than all others worn 
by her. 

"Let marble shafts and sculptured urns 
Their names record, their actions tell, 

Let future ages read and learn 

How well they fought, how nobly fell." 



PRISON REMINISCENCES 



AN ADDRESS BEFORE 
STONEWALL CAMP 
CONFEDERATE VETERANS 
PORTSMOUTH : VIRGINIA 
FEBRUARY 2ND, 1904 



PRISON REMINISCENCES 



In the charge of Pickett's Division at the battle 
of Gettysburg I was wounded and taken prisoner. 
With some others I was taken to the Twelfth 
Corps Hospital, situated in the rear of the left bat- 
tle line of the Federals. I was here treated with 
much kindness and consideration. Among other 
officers who showed me kindness was Col. Dwight, 
of New York. Professor Stoever, of Pennsylvania 
College, at which I graduated in 1850, on a visit 
to the Hospital met me, accidentally, and we had 
a talk of the old college days. 

I wore in the battle a suit of gray pants and 
jacket. They were a little shabby. After I had 
been at the hospital a few days it occurred to me 
that I ought to make an effort to get a new outfit 
so as to make a more decent appearance. The 
ways and means were at command. I wrote to an 
old friend and former client, then living in Balti- 
more, for a loan. A few days afterwards two 
Sisters of Charity came into the hospital and in- 
quired for me. They met me with gracious sym- 
pathy and kindness. One of them took me aside, 
and, unobserved, placed in my hand a package of 
money, saying it was from a friend, and requested 
no name be mentioned. They declined to give me 
any information. I never knew who they were. 
There was a mystery about them. They could not 
have come for my sake alone. But this I know, 
they were angels of mercy. 



54 



I made known to the authorities my wish to go 
to Gettysburg, and while there to avail myself of 
the opportunity of getting a new suit. The author- 
ities of the hospital, through Col. Dwight, con- 
ferred on me a great honor — the honor of personal 
confidence — absolute confidence. They gave me 
a free pass to Gettysburg, with the sole condition 
that I present it at the Provost office there and 
have it countersigned. I went alone, unattended. 
The fields and woods were open to me. They 
somehow knew — I know not how — that I could 
be trusted ; that my honor was more to me than 
my life. 

On my way to town I called by the Eleventh 
Corps Hospital, to which General Armistead had 
been taken, to see him. I found that he had died. 
They showed me his freshly made grave. To my 
inquiries they gave me full information. They told 
me that his wound was in the leg; that it ought 
not to have proved mortal ; that his proud spirit 
chafed under his imprisonment and his restlessness 
aggravated his wound. Brave Armistead ! The 
bravest of all that field of brave heroes ! If there 
be in human hearts a lyre, in human minds a flame 
divine, that awakens and kindles at the heroic 
deeds of man, then his name will be borne in song 
and story to distant times. 

I had my pass countersigned at the Provost 
office. It gave me the freedom of the city. There 
were many Federal officers and soldiers in the city. 
It was a queer, incongruous sight to see a rebel 
lieutenant in gray mingling in the crowd, and ap- 



55 



parently at home. They could see, however, many 
of the principal citizens of the town cordially 
accosting, and warmly shaking by the hand, that 
rebel. I met so many old friends that I soon felt 
at home. As I was walking along the main street, 
a prominent physician, Dr. Horner, stopped me 
and renewed the old acquaintanceship. He pointed 
to a lady standing in a door not far away, and 
asked me who it was. I gave the name of Miss 
Kate Arnold, a leading belle of the college days. 
He said, "She is my wife and she wants to see 
you." There was a mutually cordial meeting. 
While standing in a group of old friends I felt a 
gentle tap on my shoulder from behind. It was 
my dear old professor of mathematics, Jacobs. He 
whispered to me in the kindest, gentlest way not 
to talk about the war. I deeply appreciated his 
kindness and solicitude. But I had not been talk- 
ing about the war. The war was forgotten as I 
talked of the olden days. 

On another street a gentleman approached me 
and made himself known. It was Rev. David 
Swope, a native of Gettysburg, who was of the 
next class below mine. He manifested genuine 
pleasure in meeting me. He told me he was living 
in Kentucky when the war broke out. He recalled 
a little incident of the college days. He asked me 
if I remembered in passing a certain house I said 
to a little red-headed girl with abundant red curls, 
standing in front of her house, "I'll give you a levy 
for one of those curls." I told him that I remem- 
bered it as if it were yesterday. He said that little 



56 



girl was now his wife; and that she would be de- 
lighted to see me. He took me to a temporary 
hospital where there were a large number of our 
wounded. He had taken charge of the hospital, 
and manifested great interest in them and showed 
them every tender care and kindness. I fancied 
that those Kentucky days had added something to 
the sympathy of his kind, generous nature towards 
our wounded; and when I took leave of him, I am 
sure the warm grasp of my hand told him, better 
than words, of the grateful feelings in my heart. 

I must ask indulgence to mention another inci- 
dent. I met on the college campus a son of Prof. 
Baugher, who was then president of the college, 
and who was president when I graduated. The son 
gave me such a cordial invitation to dine with him 
and his father that I accepted it. They were all 
very courteous; but I fancied I detected a reserved 
dignity in old Dr. Baugher. It was very natural 
for him to be so, and I appreciated it. The old 
Doctor, while kindhearted, was of a very positive 
and radical character, which he evinced on all sub- 
jects. He was thoroughly conscientious, and was 
of the stuff of which martyrs are made. He was 
thoroughly orthodox in his Lutheran faith ; and in 
politics, without ever hearing a word from him, I 
venture to say he was in sympathy with, I will not 
say, Thaddeus Stevens, but with Garrison and 
Phillips. My knowledge of him left me no need to 
be told that his views and feelings involved in the 
war were intense. And there he was, breaking 
bread with a red handed rebel in his gray uniform, 



57 



giving aid and comfort to the enemy. Was he not 
put to it to keep mastery of himself? 

Happy for man that he is double sighted; that 
there is within him a quality allied to conscience, 
— call it charity — that enables him to choose on 
which side to look. The venerable Doctor saw be- 
fore him only his old student, recalled only the old 
days, and their dear memories. If there was any- 
thing between his heart and his country's laws, 
there was nothing between his heart and his 
Saviour's sweet charity. 

And here I must relate an incident of those old 
days not wholly irrelevant and inopportune. I 
graduated in 1850. I had the honor to be the 
valedictorian of my class. In preparing my address 
I took notice of the great excitement then prevail- 
ing on account of the discussion in Congress of the 
bill to admit California as a State into the Union. 
Great sectional feeling was aroused through this 
long protracted discussion in the Senate. One 
senator dared use the word "disunion" with a 
threat. The very word sent a thrill of horror over 
the land. I recall my own feeling of horror. In 
my address to my classmates I alluded to this sec- 
tional feeling, deprecating it, and exclaimed, "Who 
knows, unless patriotism should triumph over sec- 
tional feeling but what we, classmates, might in 
some future day meet in hostile battle array." 

Dr. Baugher, as president of the college, had re- 
vision of our graduating speeches, and he struck 
this part out of my address. But alas! it was a 
prophetic conjecture ; and members of our class 



58 



met in after years, not only in battle array, but on 
the fields over which, in teaching botany, Prof. 
Jacobs had led us in our study of the wild flowers 
that adorned those fields. 

Many other incidents occurred on this day deep- 
ly interesting to me, but they might not interest 
others. I returned to the hospital, but not before 
leaving my measure and order with a tailor for a 
suit of gray, which was subsequently delivered to 
me. 

It was a queer episode — a peace episode in the 
midst of war. This experience of mine taught me 
that the hates and prejudices engendered by the 
war were national, not individual; that individual 
relations and feelings were but little affected in 
reality; and that personal contact was sufficient to 
restore kindliness and friendship. 

A short while afterwards I was taken from the 
Twelfth Corps Hospital to David's Island, which 
is in Long Island Sound, near and opposite to New 
Rochelle, in New York. A long train from Gettys- 
burg took a large number of Confederate wounded, 
not only from the Twelfth Corps Hospital but 
from other hospitals, to Elizabethport, and from 
there the wounded were taken by boat to David's 
Island. We were taken by way of Elizabethport 
instead of by way of Jersey City, on account of a 
recent riot in New York City. All along, at every 
station at which the train stopped, it seemed to me, 
our wounded received kind attentions from leading 
ladies, such as Mrs. Broadhead and others. These 
ladies brought them delicacies in abundance; and 



59 

at Elizabethport these attentions became so con- 
spicuous that Federal officers complained of the 
neglect of the Union wounded on the train, and 
forced the Southern sympathizers, as they called 
them, to distribute their delicacies between the 
wounded of both sides. 

When we arrived at David's Island, we found 
there a first-class hospital in every respect. It was 
called "De Camp General Hospital." It consisted 
of a number of long pavilions, and other buildings 
delightfully and comfortably arranged, and fur- 
nished with every appliance needed to relieve the 
wounded and sick. It had been previously occu- 
pied by the Federal sick and wounded. It was 
quite a relief for us to get there. After our arrival, 
with those already there, three thousand Southern 
wounded soldiers occupied these pavilions. Only 
a few of these were officers. Most of the wounded 
were in a very pitiable condition. The New York 
Daily Tribune, of Wednesday, July 29, 1863, had 
this to say of them : 

THE SICK AND WOUNDED. 

"The sick and wounded Rebels were handled 
with the same care and tenderness that is bestowed 
upon our own invalid soldiers. Those who could 
not walk were gently carried on stretchers, and 
those who were able to stand upon their feet were 
led carefully from the boat to the hospital 
pavilions. They were in a wretched condition — 
dirty, ragged, and covered with vermin — their 
soiled and torn uniforms, if such they may be 



60 



called, were stained and soaked with blood; and 
their wounds, which had not been dressed from the 
time of the battles at Gettysburg until their ar- 
rival here, were absolutely alive with maggots. 
Many of them had suffered amputation — some 
had bullets in their persons — at least a score have 
died who were at the point of death when the boat 
touched the wharf. 

"On their arrival here they were dressed in the 
dirty gray coats and pants, so common in the 
Southern army. Shakespeare's army of beggars 
must have been better clad than were the Confed- 
erate prisoners. One of the first acts of Dr. Sim- 
mons, the surgeon in charge, was to order the 
prisoners to throw aside their 'ragged regimentals,' 
wash their persons thoroughly and robe them- 
selves in clean and comfortable hospital clothing, 
which consists of cotton shirts and drawers, dress- 
ing gown of gray flannel, and blue coat and 
trousers of substantial cloth. 

"Their old rags were collected in a heap and 
burned, notwithstanding the great sacrifice of life 
involved. We looked about the island in vain to 
find a butternut colored jacket, or Rebel uniform. 
The 3,000 prisoners did not bring with them 
enough clean linen to make a white flag of peace 
had they been disposed to show any such sign of 
conciliation." 

Who were these dirty, ragged soldiers, whose 
soiled and torn uniforms, if such they could be 
called, were stained and soaked with blood? The 
world knows them as the gallant followers of Lee, 



61 



whose triumphant valor on every field, and against 
all odds, had filled the world with wonder and ad- 
miration, — w r ho suffered their first defeat at Get- 
tysburg — suffered from no want of courage on 
their part as Pickett's charge shows, but solely 
from want of prompt obedience to Lee's orders. 
The three thousand wounded Confederate soldiers, 
in these pavilions, were the very flower of the 
South — the sons and product of its best blood; 
inheritors of a chivalric race, the bone and sinew 
of the land, bright, intelligent, open-faced and 
open-hearted men; including in their ranks many 
a professional man — many a college student — 
readers of Homer and Plato — readers of Virgil 
and Cicero. There were among these ragged- 
jacket wearers men who, around the camp fires, 
could discuss and quote the philosophy and elo- 
quence of the Greek and the Roman. These were 
the men who bore with cheerfulness, and without 
complaint, the conditions described; who asked 
only that by their service and suffering their 
country might be saved. 

Yes, it was of these men, in these pavilions, that 
the assistant surgeon of the hospital, Dr. James E. 
Steele, a Canadian by birth, said to me: "Adjutant, 
your men are so different from those who formerly 
occupied these pavilions ; when I go among your 
men they inspire in me a feeling of companion- 
ship." 

In the same article of the Tribune there is some- 
thing personal to myself. I will lay aside all false 



62 



modesty, and quote it here for preservation for 
those who take an interest in me. 

ADJUTANT J. F. CROCKER. 

"In pavilion No. 3 we saw several Confederate 
officers, with one or two exceptions, they were 
abed, the nature of their wounds rendering it pain- 
ful for them to sit up. One of these officers, how- 
ever was sitting at a table writing a letter. He 
was very civil and communicative. He was a 
native of Virginia, a graduate of Pennsylvania 
College at Gettysburg, where he was wounded — 
a lawyer by profession, and really a man of 
superior talents and culture. He has brown hair 
and a broad forehead. He is apparently 35 years 
of age. He said it was impossible for the North 
to subdue the South. The enemy might waste 
their fields, burn their dwellings, level their cities 
with the dust, but nothing short of utter exterm- 
ination would give the controlling power to the 
North. The intelligent people of the South looked 
upon the efforts to regain their rights as sacred, 
and they were willing to exhaust their property 
and sacrifice their lives, and the lives of their 
wives and children, in defending what they con- 
ceived to be their constitutional rights. They 
would consent to no terms save those of separa- 
tion, and would make no conditions in relation to 
the question of slavery. They would suffer any 
calamity rather than come back to the Union as 
it was. They would be willing to form an alliance 
with any country in order to accomplish the fact 



63 



of separation. 'Such are my sentiments,' said the 
Adjutant. 'I will take the liberty of asking my 
comrades if they endorse what I have said.' Cap- 
tain J. S. Reid, of Georgia, Adjutant F. J. Hay- 
wood, of North Carolina, Captain L. W. Mc- 
Laughlin, of Louisiana, Lieut. T. H. White, of 
Tennessee, L. B. Griggs, of Georgia, Lieut. M. R. 
Sharp, of South Carolina, Lieut. S. G. Martin, of 
Virginia, all responded favorably as to the opinions 
presented by their spokesman. Mr. Menwin asked 
the Adjutant what he thought of the fall of Vicks- 
burg, Port Hudson, Jackson, and the defeat in 
Pennsylvania. 'We have seen darker days,' replied 
the Adjutant ; 'when we lost New Orleans, Fort 
Donelson, and Island No. 10. We shall now put 
forth extra efforts, and call out all the men com- 
petent to bear arms.' This officer undoubtedly 
represents the views of some of the leading men 
in the Confederate Army, but there is a diversity 
of opinion here among officers and men. If they 
seem to acquiesce in the opinion of such men as 
Adjutant Crocker, who appears to be deeply in 
earnest, and who looks and speaks like a brave and 
honest man, they do not generally respond to his 
views and sentiments. He says the North is fight- 
ing for the purpose of abolishing slavery, and that 
appears to be the prevailing opinion among the 
prisoners in his pavilion." 

The Tribune with this article came, when it was 
published, into the hands of a friend who wrote : 
"I saw and read with a thrill of pride that piece in 
the N. Y. Tribune that spoke of you. I felt proud 



64 



indeed to know that one of whom an enemy could 
speak in such terms was a friend of mine. I shall 
preserve it to read with increased pleasure in the 
future." The hand that preserved it, in after 
years, placed it in my Scrap-Book where now it 
is. 

There came to David's Island a group of ladies 
as devoted, as self-sacrificing, and as patriotic as 
ever attended the wounded in the hospitals of 
Virginia. They gave up their homes and estab- 
lished themselves in the kitchens attached to the 
pavilions. With loving hands and tender sympathy 
they prepared for our sick every delicacy and re- 
freshment that money and labor could supply. It 
was to them truly a service of love and joy. These 
were Southern-born women living in New York 
City and Brooklyn. 

From their pent-up homes, and their close hos- 
tile environment, within which there was no lib- 
erty to voice and no opportunity to show their 
deep passion of patriotism, they watched the for- 
tunes of the beloved Confederacy with an interest 
as keen, and an anxiety as intense, as was ever felt 
by their mothers and sisters in the Southland. 
Imagination itself almost fails to depict the avidity 
and joy with which they availed themselves of this 
opportunity to mingle with, and to serve our 
wounded and to give vent to their long suppressed 
feelings and sympathy. It was my great pleasure 
personally to know some of these. There were 
Mrs. Mary A. Butler, widow of Dr. Bracken But- 
ler, of Smithfield, Virginia; and her sister, Miss 



65 



Anna Benton, daughters of Col. Benton, formerly 
of Suffolk, but who many years before the war, 
removed to New York. There were also Miss 
Kate Henop and Miss Caroline Granbury, both 
formerly well known in Norfolk; Mrs. Algernon 
Sullivan, Winchester, Virginia, the wife of the 
distinguished lawyer of New York, and Mrs. Susan 
Lees, of Kentucky, who after the war adopted the 
children of the gallant cavalryman, Col. Thomas 
Marshall, who was killed in battle. There were 
others whose names have escaped me. If there 
ever be erected a monument to the women of the 
South, the names of these patriotic women of 
whom I have been speaking, should be inscribed 
on its shaft. 

A Virginian, then living in Brooklyn, whose 
peculiar circumstances prevented his returning to 
his native State, Dr. James Madison Minor, made 
me frequent visits for the happiness of giving ex- 
pression to his feelings. He said it was an inex- 
pressible relief. His little daughter, wishing to do 
some thing for a Confederate soldier, out of the 
savings from her monthly allowances, bought and 
gave me a memorial cup which I still have. 

Mrs. James Gordon Bennett came to the Island 
with a coterie of distinguished friends, among 
whom was General Dix. She brought a quantity 
of fine wines for our wounded. She with her 
friends came to my pavilion, and asked for me. 
The surgeon in charge, Dr. James Simmons, had 
referred her to me. When I presented myself, she 
said: "Adjutant Crocker, I wish to do something 



66 



for your men. I do not mean mere words." With 
some pride of independence, I replied, "There is 
nothing I can ask for my comrades"; and then I 
quickly said: "Yes, Mrs. Bennett, there is one re- 
quest I wish to make of you for them, and I feel 
that you, as a woman of influence, can do some- 
thing for us." She shrugged her shoulders in the 
polite French style, and said she was but a woman, 
with only a woman's influence. I made a compli- 
mentary reply and said to her: "Mrs. Bennett, 
my companions here had their clothing battle-torn 
and blood-stained. They are now in need of outer 
clothing. They have friends in New York City 
who are willing and ready to furnish them ; but 
there is an order here forbidding our soldiers from 
receiving outer clothing. Now, my request is that 
you have this order withdrawn, or modified, so as 
to permit our men to receive outer clothing." She 
promptly replied that she would use all her influ- 
ence to accomplish the request, — that she expected 
to have Mrs. Lincoln to visit Fort Washington 
(her home) next week, and she would get her to 
use her influence with the President to revoke the 
order. The New York Herald of the next day, 
and for successive days, had an editorial paragraph 
calling public attention to the order, telling of the 
exposure of the wounded and sick prisoners to the 
chilling morning and evening winds of the Sound, 
and insisting, for humanity's sake, that the order 
should be revoked. Afterwards I received from 
Mrs. Bennett the following note : 



67 

"Fort Washington, Sept. 14th, 1863. 
Sir: 

Yesterday Mrs. Lincoln visited me at Fort 
Washington. I embraced the opportunity to ask 
her to use her influence in regard to the request 
you made me. She assured me she will attend to 
it immediately on her return to Washington. For 
all your sakes I sincerely hope she may succeed. 
I have done all in my power. I can do no more. 
Floping that your prison hours may pass lightly 
over, I remain with best wishes for yourself and 
brother officers, 

Yours truly, 

H. A. Bennett. 
To Adjutant Crocker." 

Mrs. Bennett conversed freely with me about 
her husband. She said he was always a sincere 
friend of the South ; that when, upon the firing 
upon Fort Sumter, the wild furor swept the City 
of New York and demanded that the American 
flag should be displayed on every building, Mr. 
Bennett refused to hoist the flag on the Herald 
Building, and resisted doing so until he saw the 
absolute necessity of doing it. She said he wept 
over the condition of things. She spoke also of 
her son James. She said that when Vicksburg fell 
"Jimmy came to me with tears in his eyes, saying, 
'Mother, what do you think? Vicksburg has 
fallen. Brave fellows — brave fellows !' I replied 
that it was the tribute which brave men ever pay 
to the brave." 



68 



Dr. James Simmons, the surgeon in charge of 
the Hospital, was a native of South Carolina. 
Somehow he took a great fancy to me, and gave 
me a warm friendship. He took me into his con- 
fidence and talked freely with me about his sur- 
roundings, and how he came to remain in the 
Federal service. He married Miss Gittings, the 
daughter of the well known banker of Baltimore. 
He became a citizen of Maryland, and while wait- 
ing for his State to secede, he became involved in 
the Federal service, and found that he could not 
well leave ; and he concluded that as a non-com- 
batant he would probably have opportunities of 
serving our captured and wounded soldiers. He 
himself was not beyond suspicion ; for I remember 
his saying to me in his office, with a motion, re- 
ferring to the writers in his office, "these are spies 
on me." The Federal authorities, I believe, had 
in the war more or less suspicion about the South- 
ern officers in the army, — that they did not fully 
trust them until like General Hunter, they showed 
cruelty to their own people. Real traitors are al- 
ways cruel. Benedict Arnold on the border of the 
James, and on our own waters here was more 
cruel with the firebrand and sword than even 
Tarleton was. Let it ever be thus. Let infamous 
traits be ever allied to infamous treachery. I occa- 
sionally met Mrs. Simmons, who, I believe, spent 
most of her time at New Rochelle. Her warm 
grasp of the hand told me more plainly than words 
that the sympathies of her heart were deeply with 
us. I made a request of Dr. Simmons. His kind 



69 



heart could not refuse it. I told him I wanted a 
Confederate uniform, — that I had a friend in New- 
York City from whom I could get it — that I knew 
it was against orders for him to grant my request. 
He answered: "Have it sent to my wife at New 
Roehelle." I had my measure taken and sent to 
New York. Soon I received a full lieutenant's uni- 
form in Confederate gray of excellent quality, 
which I, afterwards, on returning home at the end 
of the war, wore for a while for lack of means for 
getting a civilian's suit. 

While at Johnson's Island to which prison I was 
taken after leaving David's Island, and when the 
exchange of prisoners had been suspended, I made 
special effort to obtain an exchange. For this pur- 
pose, I wrote to my brother, Rev. William A. 
Crocker, the Superintendent of the Army Intelli- 
gence Office at Richmond, and got him to see 
Judge Ould, the Commissioner of Exchange on my 
behalf. I at the same time wrote to Dr. James 
Simmons to aid me in getting exchanged. I re- 
ceived from Dr. Simmons the following letter and 
enclosure : 

"Medical Directors' Office, 

Department of the East, 

New York, Feby. 13th, 1864. 
Dear Sir: 

Your letter of the 11th Jany. did not reach me 
until a few days since. I have written to Colonel 
Hoffman in your behalf and sincerely hope that he 
may grant your request. I am but slightly ac- 



70 



quainted with Col. Hoffman, and can only hope 
that the justice of the case may cause him to grant 
your request. If I can be of any service to you 
pray command me. I send a copy of my letter to 
Col. Hoffman, and regret I did not receive your 
letter sooner. Be kind enough to remember me 
to Capt. Butler, Kincaid and others. 
Very truly yours, 

J. Simmons. 
Capt. J. F. Crocker, 
Prisoner of War, 

Johnson's Island." 

"New York, Feby. 13th, 1864. 
Colonel: 

I enclose you a letter from Capt. J. F. Crocker, 
prisoner of war now at Johnson's Island. The let- 
ter which reached me only a few days since was 
directed to David's Island, Capt. Crocker suppos- 
ing I was in charge of that hospital. If anything 
can be done for him not inconsistent with the reg- 
ulations of your department, I am sure you would 
be conferring a favor upon a gentleman and a man 
of honor and refinement. The orderly behavior of 
the prisoners while at David's Island was in a 
great measure due to the influence of this gentle- 
man. I am, Colonel, 

Your obedient servant, 

J. Simmons, Surg, of &c. 
Colonel Hoffman, 

Comr. Genl. of Pris., 
Washington, D. C." 



71 



With other officers I left David's Island for 
Johnson's Island on the 18th of September, 1863. 
While on the steamer going to New York City, 
Dr. James E. Steele, the assistant surgeon of the 
Island, before mentioned, came to me and asked 
me if I had an Autograph Book. He said a lady 
wished to see it. I gave it to him. He soon re- 
turned it, cautioning me about opening it. When 
he left me I opened it. Two names had been writ- 
ten in it, J. M. Carnochan, M. D., and Estelle Mor- 
ris Carnochan, and within the leaves there was a 
ten dollar note. I took it as a token of good feel- 
ing towards me, and as a compliment delicately 
made. Dr. Carnochan was a native of South Caro- 
lina. He then lived in New York City, and was 
by far the most eminent surgeon of that city. He 
frequently came down to David's Island to per- 
form difficult operations on our wounded. His 
wife, as I understood it at the time, was the 
daughter of General Morris, of Maryland, and her 
mother was the daughter of the famous founder 
and editor of the Richmond Enquirer, Thomas 
Ritchie. 

In passing from New York City through the 
great States of New York and Ohio to Sandusky, 
one thing deeply impressed me — the great num- 
ber of men in civilian's clothes of the military age, 
who gathered at the railroad stations. I said to 
myself, "War in the North is fully organized — 
with such resources of men and war material, it is 
prepared to conduct the war for an indefinite time, 
and that it was with the North only a question of 



72 



finances and of public opinion." It renewed my 
grief at our defeat at Gettysburg. That was the 
pivotal point of the war. A great victory there 
would have achieved peace, and would have en- 
abled the South, instead of the North, to determine 
the terms of reunion and reconstruction. Had it 
not been for the delinquency of some of our gen- 
erals, Lee's Army would have won a complete and 
decisive victory on the first and second days of that 
battle, as I have explained in my address on 
"Gettysburg — Pickett's Charge." 

We arrived at Johnson's Island about the 19th 
of September, 1863. The following officers of my 
regiment, the 9th Virginia Infantry, had already 
reached there: Maj. Wm. James Richardson, Cap- 
tains Henry A. Allen, Jules O. B. Crocker, and 
Harry Gwynn; Lieutenants John H. Lewis, John 
Vermillion, Samuel W. Weaver, John M. Hack, 
Henry C. Britton, M. L. Clay, Edward Varnier 
and Henry Wilkinson. I was assigned to a bunk 
in Block 12. This building consisted of large 
rooms with tiers of bunks on the sides. Subse- 
quently I with four others occupied room 5, Block 
2. My room-mates and messmates were, Captains 
John S. Reid, of Eatonton, Ga., and R. H. Isbell, 
of Tuscaloosa, Ala., and Lieutenants James W. 
Lapsley, of Selma, Ala., and John Taylor, of 
Columbia, S. C. 

The first incident of personal interest to me 
after my arrival in this prison occurred thus : I 
met on the campus Colonel E. A. Scovill, the 
Superintendent of the prison. I said to him : 



73 



"Colonel, you have an order here that no one is 
allowed to write at one time more than on one 
side of a half sheet of letter paper. I have a dear, 
fair friend at my home in Portsmouth, Va., and I 
find it impossible for me to express one tithe of 
what I wish to say within the limits prescribed." 
He replied : "Write as much as you wish, hand 
me your letters to your friend, and tell her to 
answer to my care." That kind act of Col. Scovill 
made him my personal friend, and he afterwards 
did me other important kindnesses. I believe that 
the surest way to become a friend to another, is to 
do that other person a kindness. A kindness done 
has more effect upon the donor, than upon the re- 
cipient, in creating mutual interest. This gracious 
favor of Col. Scovill was highly appreciated, and it 
added happiness to me and to my dear friend. 

I brought my battle-wound with me, unhealed, 
to Johnson's Island. I had not been there long be- 
fore gangrene appeared in it. It was a critical 
moment. My friend, Dr. Brodie Strauchan Hern- 
don, of Fredericksburg, Va., a prisoner, by imme- 
diate and severe remedy arrested the gangrene at 
once ; and soon afterwards made a permanent cure 
of the wound, and also restored my general health. 
The tardiness of my wound in healing was caused 
by the low condition of my health. On our way to 
Pennsylvania, I sat on my horse in the mid-stream 
of the Shenandoah while my regiment, the 9th Va., 
waded across. I did the same when it crossed the 
Potomac. When we reached Williamsport I went 
under the treatment of our surgeon. It was there, 



74 



for the first time since I was twelve years old, a 
drop of intoxicating liquor passed my lips, save at 
the communion table. 

It was owing to the condition of my health that 
a slight injury on my lip, while at David's Island, 
caused by my biting it, although not malignant, 
refused to heal. Finally I was advised by Dr. 
Herndon to have it cut off. He said, however, that 
the operation could not be safely performed in the 
prison on account of a tendency to gangrene. I 
obtained permission to go to Sandusky for the pur- 
pose. I was given a parole. I went to the leading 
hotel in the city. There I met — strange coinci- 
dence — with Mr. Merritt Todd and his wife, both 
natives of my own county, Isle of Wight, Va., 
friends of my father in their early days, with their 
granddaughter, Parker Cooke, then about fourteen 
years of age. Their home before the war was in 
Norfolk. Mr. Todd had established a large and 
lucrative business in curing hams in Cincinnati 
where he owned valuable real estate. To prevent 
the confiscation of his property he made Ohio the 
State of his residence during the war, and was at 
this time in Sandusky. Nothing under the circum- 
stances could have added more to my happiness 
than thus to be thrown in intimate intercourse 
with these friends. 

I reported to the Federal surgeons. They re- 
ceived me most courteously. They seated me in a 
chair for the operation. They asked me if I wished 
to take an anaesthetic. It instantly flashed in my 
mind to show these kind surgeons how a Confed- 



75 



erate soldier could bear pain, and I answered No! 
I sat in the chair from the beginning to the end of 
the operation without a groan or a token of pain. 
Their work was done skillfully, effectively and 
kindly. The trouble never returned. These offi- 
cers were very polite and hospitable to me. In re- 
turn for their hospitality I had one or more of 
them to dine with me at the hotel. Don't raise 
your hands in horror ! Why should I have been 
less a gentleman than they? Once a gentleman, — 
always a gentleman — under all circumstances a 
gentleman. No true Southern soldier ever lost in 
war his good manners or his humanity. 

I again had the freedom of a Northern city. And 
although I walked the streets in Confederate gray, 
no one showed the slightest exception to it or 
showed me the least affront. But on the contrary, 
there was one citizen of the place, to the manor 
born, who visited me almost daily — and a very 
clever and strong man, too, he was. According to 
his account, he had been ostracized; his home had 
been surrounded and threatened by mobs ; he had 
been hooted and maltreated on the streets. Why? 
He said because he was a Democrat and opposed 
to the war. He was a genuine "Copperhead," and 
either from intolerance or other cause, he was a 
warm sympathizer with the South. The opportu- 
nity to express his sympathy was a great relief 
and gratification to him. He never tired of talking 
about Lee and his battles and his successes. He 
had reached a state of mind when he was even glad 
to hear of the defeat of his country's armies and 



76 



the success of ours. At the end of four weeks, I 
returned to the Island. 

When I first reached Johnson's Island I found 
that the rations given to the prisoners, while plain, 
were good and abundant. Within the prison was 
a sutler's store from which the prisoners were al- 
lowed to buy without restraint. Boxes of pro- 
visions and clothing from friends were permitted. 
To show the liberality with which these were al- 
lowed, I received from my dear brother, Julius O. 
Thomas, of Four Square, Isle of Wight county, 
Virginia, a box of tobacco which he had kindly 
sent as a gift to me, through the lines under the 
flag of truce. It was as good to me as a bill of 
exchange, and I disposed of it for its money value. 
This condition continued until the issuing of 
orders, said to be in retaliation of treatment of 
Federal prisoners at Andersonville. These orders 
put the prisoners on half rations, excluded the sut- 
ler's store from the prison, and prohibited the re- 
ceipt of all boxes of provisions — with a discretion 
to the surgeon in charge to allow boxes for sick 
prisoners. The result of these orders was that the 
prisoners were kept in a state of hunger — I will 
say in a state of sharp hunger — all the time. My 
messmates whom I have before mentioned, were 
as refined and as well bred as any gentlemen in the 
South; and they had been accustomed to wealth. 
We employed a person to cook our rations, and to 
place them on the table in our room. What then? 
Sit down and help ourselves? No. We could not 
trust ourselves to do that. We would divide up 



77 



the food into five plates as equally as we could do 
it. Then one would turn his back to the table, and 
he would be asked: "Whose is this, and this," and 
so on. And when we had finished our meal, there 
was not left on our plates a trace of food, grease 
or crumb. Our plates would be as clean as if 
wiped with a cloth ; and we would arise from the 
table hungry — hungry still — ravenously hungry. 
We no longer disdained the fat, coarse pork — the 
fatter, the better. It was sustenance we craved. 
No longer did we crave desserts and dainties. The 
cold, stale bread was sweeter to us than any cake 
or dainty we ever ate at our mother's table. We 
would at times become desperate for a full meal. 
Then by common consent we would eat up our 
whole day's rations at one meal. And then, alas, 
we would get up with hunger — ■ hungry still. My 
God, it was terrible ! Yet we kept in excellent 
health. I said it then, and I have said it hundreds 
of times since, that if I had an enemy whom I 
wished to punish exquisitely, I would give him 
enough food to keep him in health with a sharp 
appetite, but not enough to satisfy his appetite. I 
would keep him hungry, sharply, desperately hun- 
gry all the time. It was a cruel, bitter treatment, 
and that, too, by a hand into which Providence had 
poured to overflowing its most bounteous gifts. 

One practical lesson I learned from this expe- 
rience ; that a hungry man can eat any food, and 
eat it with a relish denied kings and princes at 
their luxurious boards. It has made me lose all 
patience with one who says he cannot eat this, and 



78 



cannot eat that. Between such an one and starva- 
tion there is no food he cannot eat, and eat with 
the keenest enjoyment. 

Shall I leave out of my story a bright, happy 
page? No. On the 13th of January, 1865, there 
was sent by express to me at Johnson's Island, a 
box prepared and packed by the joint hands of a 
number of my friends at home then within the 
lines of the enemy, full of substantial and delicious 
things. The mail of the same day carried to Lt. 
Col. Scovill the following note : 

"Portsmouth, Va., Jany. 13th, 1865. 
Lt. Col. Scovill: 

Colonel : — Today by express I send a box of 
provisions for my friend. Adjutant J. F. Crocker. 
If there should be any difficulty in regard to his 
having the articles sent, will you do me the favor 
to use your influence with the surgeon in obtain- 
ing his permission for their delivery? If you will, 
I shall take it as a new kindness added to that one 
granted by you in the past, and shall not feel less 
grateful for this, than I did, and do still feel for 
that. Yours respectfully, 



This note was sent into me with the following 
endorsement: "Jany. 17th, 1865. 

Adjt. : — Make an application to Surgeon Wool- 
bridge and enclose it to me. 

Yours, &c, 

A. E. Scovill, 
Lt. Col. & Supt." 



79 



Application was made, and that box was sent in 
immediately to me. Yes, it was a new and added 
favor from this warm, generous-hearted officer and 
man ; and I have ever since borne in my heart and 
memory a kind and grateful feeling towards him. 
My messmates and I had a royal feast. 

I cannot omit to notice the religious feeling that 
prevailed in the prison, and I cannot better do so 
than to copy here a letter written by me at the 
time. 

"Johnson's Island, Sunday, July 10th, '64. 

This is the holy Sabbath, my dear friend. Can 
I better interest you than by giving you a religious 
view of our prison? There are many things in 
prison life, if properly improved, that conduce to 
religious sentiments. A prisoner's unfortunate 
condition, of itself, imposes upon him much seri- 
ousness, and in his long unemployed hours reflec- 
tion grows upon him. There is a pensive sorrow 
underlying all his thoughts, and his sensibilities 
are ever kept sensitive by the recollection of home, 
and the endearments of love from which he is now 
indefinitely excluded, while his patriotic anxieties 
are constantly and painfully alive to the wavering 
fortunes of his country. You will not therefore be 
surprised to learn that there is here a high moral 
tone and religious feeling. The present campaign 
was preceded by daily prayer meetings here, and 
for a long time afterwards kept up. And it would 
have done your heart good to have heard the earn- 
est appeals that rose to the throne of the Great 



80 



Ruler of Nations from every block. You can im- 
agine the great burden of these earnest prayers. 
These prayer meetings are still of almost daily 
occurrence. We have here also our Bible Classes, 
and also our Christian Associations, that do a great 
deal of good. But above all we have our sermons 
on the Sabbath and other days. Among the offi- 
cers here are a number of prisoners who are min- 
isters. It is one of our greatest privileges that 
these are allowed to preach to us unmolested, and 
with all freedom. I can scarce ever attend one of 
these services without having my eyes moistened. 
There are two subjects that never grow trite, 
though never passed over without allusion in these 
services — our country and the loved ones at 
home. These ever elicit the hearty amen, and the 
tender tear. These touch the deepest and strong- 
est chords of our hearts. Ah! was country ever 
loved as it is by its far off imprisoned soldiers! 
Was home and its dear ones ever loved as by him 
who sighs in imprisonment. The heart grows hal- 
lowed under these sacred, tender influences. Shut 
out from the beautiful green earth we learn to look 
up to the sky that is above us; and through its 
azure depths and along the heights of its calm 
stars, our thoughts like our vision, rise Heaven- 
ward. Many a one who entered these prison 
bounds with a heart thoughtless of his soul's high 
interests, has turned to his God; and now nearly 
on every Sabbath there is either some one baptized 
or added to some branch of the Church. It is a 



81 



high gratification to make this record of my fellow 
comrades, and I know it will be a delight to you. 

Your devoted friend, 



The death and burial of Lt. Henry Wilkinson, 
Company B, 9th Va., deeply affected me; and I 
cannot deny him a kind word of mention in these 
pages. He was the only one of my regiment who 
died in the prison. He was severely wounded at 
Gettysburg, at the Bloody Angle. He was from 
Norfolk. He was a gallant, conscientious, patriotic 
soldier. He asked only once for a furlough. That 
came to him after we had started or were about to 
start on our Pennsylvania campaign. He declined 
it. It was to him as if he were taking a furlough 
in the presence of the enemy. There was some- 
thing pathetic in the refusal. It was to give him 
opportunity to meet, and see, one whom he loved. 
He sacrificed to duty the heart's dearest longing 

Well do I remember his burial. That open 
grave is even now clearly before me, as vividly as 
on that day. His comrades are standing around. 
There is a tender pathos in the voice of the holy 
man, a Confederate minister, who is conducting 
the solemn service. There are tears in the eyes 
of us all. The deep feeling was not from any 
words spoken but a silent welling up from our 
hearts. The inspiration felt in common was from 
the occasion itself — the lowering down the youth- 
ful form of this patriotic soldier into the cold 
bosom of that bleak far off island — so far away — 



82 



so far from his home and kindred — so far away 
from the one that loved him best. Well do I re- 
member as I stood there looking into that grave 
into which we had lowered him, there came to me 
feelings that overcame me. I seemed to identify 
myself with him. I put myself in his place. Then 
there came to me as it were the tender wailing 
grief of all who loved me most — dear ones at 
home. Even now as I recall the scene, the feel- 
ings that then flowed, break out afresh and I am 
again in tears. 

EXCHANGED. 

BY A LADY IN KENTUCKY. 

From his dim prison house by Lake Erie's bleak 
shore 
He is borne to his last resting place, 
The glance of affection and friendship no more 

Shall rest on the Captive's wan face. 
The terms of the Cartel his God had arranged 
And the victim of war has at length been 
"exchanged." 

His comrades consign his remains to the earth 

With a tear and a sigh of regret, 
From the land he could never forget. 

He died far away from the land of his birth 
'Mid the scenes of his boyhood his fancy last 
ranged 
Ere the sorrows of life and its cares were 
"exchanged." 



83 



The clods of the Island now rest on his head 
That the fierce storms of battle had spared 
On the field that was strewn with the dying and 
dead 
Whose perils and dangers he shared. 
From home and from all that he loved long 
estranged 
Death pitied his fate and the Captive 
"exchanged." 

(Copied in my Autograph Book when on the 
Island). 

The United States government had suspended 
the exchange of prisoners so long that it had be- 
come a general belief of the prisoners that they 
would be kept in prison until the close of the war. 
The renewal of exchange came as a great joy to 
us all. It was not only personal freedom we 
craved, but we desired to renew again our service 
in our armies in behalf of our country. There had 
been several departures of prisoners, when, on the 
morning of the 28th of February, 1865, I received 
notice to get ready to leave, and that I was to 
leave at once. In a few moments I had packed up 
some of my belongings — as much as I could 
carry in a dress suit case, and joined my departing 
comrades. We were taken by rail to Baltimore, 
and from thence by steamer down the Chesapeake 
Bay and up the James to Aiken's Landing, which 
place we reached on the 3rd of March. There was 
no incident on the way worthy of note. I recall, 
however, the deep emotion with which I greeted 



84 



once again the shores and waters of dear Virginia. 
It brought back to me the impassioned cry of the 
men of Xenophon, "The Sea! The Sea!" I recall 
as we came up Hampton Roads how intently I 
gazed towards this dear home city of ours, and 
how, as we entered the mouth of the James, I 
seemed to embrace in fond devotion the familiar 
shores of my native county. Ah ! how we love our 
native land — its soil, its rivers, its fields, its for- 
ests! This love is God-implanted, and is, or should 
be, the rock-basis of all civic virtue. 

At Aiken's Landing we were transferred to our 
Confederate steamer. "Once again under our own 
flag," I wrote on the Confederate steamer and sent 
it back by the Federal steamer to my home city to 
gladden the hearts of my friends there. 

We landed at Rocketts, Richmond. As we pro- 
ceeded up on our way to General Headquarters, 
and had gone but a short distance, we saw a boy 
selling some small apples. We inquired the price. 
"One dollar apiece," was the answer. It was a 
blow — a staggering blow — to thus learn of the 
utter depreciation of the Confederate currency. I 
may just as well say here that all the prisoners at 
Johnson's Island stoutly maintained their confi- 
dence in the ultimate success of our cause. They 
never lost hope or faith. They never realized at 
all the despondency at home. The little boy with 
his apples told me that it was not so in Richmond 
I at once seemed to feel the prevailing despond- 
ency in the very air, and as we made our way up 



85 



the street I felt and realized that there was a pall 
hanging over the city. 

When I reached General Headquarters I found 
out that we were not exchanged, that we were 
prisoners still, paroled prisoners. I was given a 
furlough. Here it is before me now: 

"Headquarters Department of Richmond, 

Richmond, Va., March 3d, 1865. 

In obedience to instructions from the Secretary 
of War the following named men (paroled prison- 
ers) are granted furloughs for 30 days (unless 
sooner exchanged) at the expiration of which time 
they will, if exchanged, rejoin their respective 
commands. 

Adjt. J. F. Crocker, 9th Va. Regt. 

By order of Lieut. -General Ewell. 

J. W. Pegram, A. A. General." 

The next day I went to the "Pay Bureau Q. M. 
Department." I was paid $600 in Confederate 
notes. I have before me the certificate that was 
given me. 

"Richmond, Va., March 4th, 1865. 

I certify that I have this day paid First Lieut, 
and Adjt. Jas. F. Crocker, 9th Va. Regiment, from 
1 June to 30 Nov., 1862, pay $600. 

Geo. A. Barksdale, 

Capt. & A. Q. M." 



86 



I took what was given me. I asked no ques- 
tions. I made no complaint. I concluded that the 
market would not stand a much larger issue, or 
the boy would raise the price of his apples. I in- 
formed the department that I wished to go to see 
my brother, Julius O. Thomas, in Isle of Wight 
county. I was given transportation tickets with 
coupons to go and return. I went by the Rich- 
mond and Danville Railroad to Danville, thence to 
Raleigh, thence to Weldon and thence to Hicks- 
ford. From Hicksford I was to make my way as 
well as I could. I reached without difficulty our 
ancestral home, Four Square, where my brother 
lived. I shall never forget the kind and loving wel- 
come he and his dear wife gave me. It was indeed 
a true home-coming. The prison half-rations were 
forgotten. I remained about three weeks. I then 
started for Richmond to report to Headquarters to 
see if I had been exchanged or not. I took the 
train in Southampton county for Weldon and 
thence to Raleigh. When I reached Raleigh I 
heard that Richmond had fallen. When I reached 
Danville, I learned that Lee's retreat had been cut 
off from Danville. I then determined to go across 
the country to see my brother, Rev. William A. 
Crocker, who was living the other side of Camp- 
bell Court House, and with whom was my dear 
mother. I took the stage to Pittsylvania Court 
House. When I reached there, I learned that 
Lee's army was operating in the direction of 
Appomattox. While waiting there a few days in 
uncertainty, a section of a battery was drawn up 



87 



in the Court House square, abandoned and dis- 
banded. While the men were unhitching the 
horses, I said to them that I had $100 in Confed- 
erate notes in my pocket which I would be glad to 
give for one of the horses. A horse was at once 
handed to me and I gave them my last $100 in 
Confederate notes. I mounted this horse, and rode 
him bareback to my brother's. 

On my way I met large bodies of unarmed sol- 
diers going South to their homes. Their silent 
walk and sad faces told of a sorrow in their hearts. 
These were Lee's men. They had surrendered at 
Appomattox their arms but not their honor. They 
were heroes — but they were not conscious of it. 
They were unconscious of their fame and glory. 
These were they of whom the world was to declare 
they made defeat as illustrious as victory. 

When I came in sight of my brother's home, I 
saw that his woods near the road were on fire, and 
that persons were engaged in fighting the fire. I 
saw that my brother was among them. I jumped 
off my horse, broke off the top of a bush, and ap- 
proaching my brother from behind I commenced 
fighting the fire a short distance from him, turning 
my back on him. I had been thus engaged for 
some time, unobserved, and without a word, when 
I heard, suddenly, the cry: "Brother! My 
Brother!" I was in his arms and he in mine, and 
we wept — wept tears of affection and joy at meet- 
ing, and wept tears of sorrow over our lost 
country. All was over. 



Colonel James Gregory Hodges, 
His Life and Character 



AN ADDRESS BEFORE 
STONEWALL CAMP 
CONFEDERATE VETERANS 
PORTSMOUTH : VIRGINIA 
JUNE THE 18 TH, 1909 




X. 



Colonel James Gregory Hodges. 



COLONEL JAMES GREGORY HODGES 



James Gregory Hodges was born in Portsmouth, 
Va., on the 25th day of December, 1828. His 
father was Gen. John Hodges. Gen. Hodges was 
one of the most noted citizens of Norfolk county 
for his high character, intelligence, wealth, social 
position and for his public services. For a num- 
ber of years he was a member of the county court. 
He served in the General Assembly of Virginia. 
In the war of 1812 he, as captain, commanded a 
company attached to the Thirtieth regiment of the 
third requisition for the State of Virginia, com- 
manded by Maj. Dempsey Veale, and mustered into 
the service of the United States on the 26th of 
April, 1813, at the camp near Fort Nelson, situ- 
ated on what is now known as the Naval Hospital 
Point. This regiment was engaged in the battle 
of Craney Island. He subsequently held the com- 
mission of colonel of the Seventh regiment of Vir- 
ginia in militia and later was elected on joint ballot 
of both houses of the General Assembly a briga- 
dier general of the Ninth brigade in the fourth 
division of the militia of the commonwealth and 
commissioned by Gov. John Tyler on the 7th day 
of January, 1826. 

The mother of James Gregory Hodges was Jane 
Adelaide Gregory. She was a descendant of the 
colonial clergyman, John Gregorie, who was rector 
of Nansemond county parish in 1680. Her grand- 



92 



father was James Gregory, who married Patience 
Godwin, the daughter of Thomas Godwin and 
Mary Godwin, his wife. This Thomas Godwin was 
a descendant of Capt. Thomas Godwin, the original 
settler and ancestor of the Godwins of Nansemond 
county, who was a member of the House of Bur- 
gesses and the presiding justice of the county court 
of Nansemond county for many years. James 
Gregory was a vestryman of the upper parish, and 
afterwards, by a change of the boundaries of the 
parish, a vestryman of the Suffolk parish of Nan- 
semond. His son, James Gregory, the father of 
Mrs. Hodges, married Mary Wynns, the daughter 
of Col. Benjamin Wynns, of the revolution, and 
Margaret Pugh, the daughter of Francis Pugh 
and Pherebee Savage. 

James Gregory Hodges was educated at the once 
famous Literary, Scientific and Military Academy 
of Portsmouth, of which Capt. Alden Partridge, A. 
M., of New England, was superintendent. His 
associate professors were: William L. Lee, A. B., 
professor of mathematics, natural philosophy and 
civil engineering; William H. H. Davis, A. B., pro- 
fessor of mathematics, topographical drawing, mili- 
tary instructor and teacher of fencing; Lucius D. 
Pierce, A. B., professor of ancient languages ; 
Moses Jean Odend'hal, professor of modern lan- 
guages, and H. Myers, instructor of martial music. 
To show the high character of this school, I beg 
to mention the names of the gentlemen who com- 
posed the board of trustees, and who are remem- 
bered as among the most honorable citizens of 



93 



Portsmouth: Gen. John Hodges, president; Holt 
Wilson, Dr. Joseph Schoolfield, Capt. James 
Thompson, Col. M. Cooke, John A. Chandler, Dr. 
R. R. Butt, Dr. A. R. Smith, Dr. William Collins, 
William H. Wilson, Maj. Walter Gwynn. This 
school had a large number of cadets. Of the 
cadets James Gregory Hodges, of the senior de- 
partment, and John Collins Woodley, the brother 
of the late Dr. Joseph R. Woodley, of the junior 
department, were by common consent elected to 
decide all disputes that arose among the cadets; 
and such was the cadets' great admiration and res- 
pect for their high character and judgment that all 
readily acquiesced in their decisions. 

He chose medicine as his profession and gradu- 
ated at the University of Pennsylvania. He gained 
great success and eminence in his profession. Dur- 
ing the yellow fever here in 1855 he gave untiring 
and faithful devotion to the sick day and night 
from the beginning to the end of the epidemic. 

He was elected mayor of the city of Portsmouth 
April, 1856, and again in April, 1857. 

The Third regiment of Virginia volunteers of 
this city was organized in 1856, and Dr. James 
Gregory Hodges was elected colonel ; David J. 
Godwin, lieutenant colonel ; William C. Wingfield, 
major; John W. H. Wrenn, adjutant; C. W. Mur- 
daugh, commissary ; John Hobday, quartermaster ; 
Dr. H. F. Butt, surgeon, and Dr. V. B. Bilisoly, 
assistant surgeon. At the time of the organization 
of the regiment it was composed of the following 
companies: Portsmouth Rifle Company, Capt. 



94 



John C. Owens; Old Dominion Guard, Capt. Ed- 
ward Kearns; the National Grays, Capt. John E. 
Deans ; the Marion Rifles, Capt. Johannis Watson ; 
the Union Guard, Capt. Nathaniel Edwards, and 
the Dismal Swamp Rangers, Capt. James C. Choat. 
On Saturday, the 20th day of April, 1861, when 
the regiment was ordered by Gov. Letcher into 
the service of the State, it consisted of the same 
companies except the Union Guard, which had 
been disbanded the year before. 

The twentieth of April, eighteen hundred and 
sixty one — memorable day! On this day com- 
menced in Virginia an unproclaimed war. The 
ordinance of secession had been passed on the 
17th day of April, 1861. The proclamation of 
President Lincoln calling on Virginia for her 
quota of military forces to wage war against her 
sister States of the South brought all Virginians 
of true loyalty together. War was the inevitable 
result of national and State action. Gov. Letcher 
had sent down Gen. William B. Taliaferro to take 
cuarge of the organized forces of this section when 
called into the service of the State. At noon the 
United States authorities closed the doors of the 
navy yard and began the destruction of its build- 
ings, its ships and stores. It was an act of war 
and was so regarded by all. At 2 p. m. the volun- 
teer companies of the city were called into the 
service of the State. At that hour the long roll 
sounded summoning our local military to arms. 
Our military responded to the roll call with a 



95 



unanimity and with a patriotic devotion unsur- 
passed. 

Near sunset of the 20th of April the Pawnee 
passed the foot of High street on her way to the 
navy yard. I see her now as vividly as I did at 
that hour. Her officers were at their posts — her 
men at their loaded guns and upwards of 400 ma- 
rines and soldiers at quarters — all standing ready, 
on the least provocation, to give and to receive 
the order to fire. She moved with a firm steadi- 
ness and the silent majesty of authority. She 
seemed a living thing — with a heart beating to 
stirred emotions and sharing the hostile feelings 
and defiance of those whom she bore. Her power 
and readiness to do harm inspired a kind of terror 
in every breast. On her arrival at the yard the 
work of destruction received a new impetus. On 
every side were heard the vulcan sounds of destruc- 
tion ; on every side were seen the flames of burning 
buildings and blazing ships. Our forces were not 
sufficient to interfere and there seemed to be a 
mutual understanding on both sides — the result of 
weakness on our side and ignorance on that of the 
enemy — that the Pawnee, with the Cumberland in 
tow, at the end of the destruction of the yard, 
might leave without molestation. 

The enemy left early in the morning of the 21st, 
and Col. Hodges, under the order of Gen. Taliaferro, 
entered the navy yard to take charge, to restore 
order and to protect what was left and to turn the 
yard over to the civil and naval officers of the 
State. This was done, and leaving one of his com- 



96 



panies in the yard as a guard he took the other 
companies of his regiment to the naval hospital 
grounds and there threw up breastworks for pro- 
tection against any United States vessel that should 
attempt to re-enter the harbor. It was a Sunday 
morning. We all remember the work of throwing 
up the breastworks. It was done with a will — 
with patriotic devotion. I did some spading on 
that work, citizens also helped, and the mothers 
and daughters of our city came down and cheered 
us in our work. All apprehension soon left us and 
we were exuberantly cheerful and happy. Troops 
from every quarter came pouring into our midst. 
Batteries were thrown up at every point of defense. 
We soon felt that the enemy could never again 
come into our harbor by land or water against our 
will. 

Very soon after matters had become well ordered 
at the naval hospital grounds Gov. Letcher ap- 
pointed and assigned to the Third regiment, Vir- 
ginia volunteers, Col. Roger A. Pryor, and his field 
officers and assigned Col. James Gregory Hodges, 
Lieut. Col. David J. Godwin and Maj. William 
White to the Fourteenth Virginia regiment. This 
was done on the alleged policy that it is better for a 
colonel to command a regiment of strangers than 
a regiment of his personal friends. Maj. William 
C. Wingfield and the other staff officers of the old 
Third Virginia regiment resigned and afterwards 
did distinguished services under other commands. 

Col. Hodges with his regiment was ordered to 
take command of Jamestown Island, and we find 



97 



that on the 31st day of May, 1861, he was there in 
command not only of his own regiment of ten com- 
panies but also of five companies of artillery and 
two additional companies of infantry. His adju- 
tant at this time w r as Lieut. Evans. 

This assignment of Col. Hodges to the Four- 
teenth Virginia regiment and to the command of 
Jamestown Island took him from his home — from 
the companionship of his wife and two infant boys. 
On the 11th day of August, 1853, he married 
Sarah A. F. Wilson, the daughter of William H. 
Wilson and Ellen Keeling. His son, William Wil- 
son Hodges, was born on the 29th of April, 1S54, 
and his son, John Nelson Hodges, was born on the 
3rd of May, when he was in command at the Naval 
Hospital grounds, and he gave to his little baby 
son the name of Nelson, after Fort Nelson, erected 
on those grounds in the revolution. To him and 
to his wife it was a most painful separation, yet 
bravely and cheerfully borne in the spirit of pa- 
triotic duty to their country. His letters to his 
wife were ever full of the most devoted love to her 
and of the keenest, tenderest interest in his two 
infant children, whom he calls so dearly "my boys." 
There was an ever intense longing to be with his 
wife and children and always the firm recognition 
of his duty to be ever with his regiment. 

On August 1, 1861, Gen. Magruder ordered Col. 
Hodges to take six companies of his regiment and 
to join him in the lower part of the Peninsula. 
Gen. Magruder with 5,000 men, made a demonstra- 
tion of a regular line of battle before Newport 



98 



News with the purpose of drawing out the enemy 
at that place, but the enemy failed to appear. He 
afterwards made a like demonstration near Hamp- 
ton to draw the enemy from Old Point to make an 
attack, but the enemy failed to appear. On the 
7th of August Gen. Magruder ordered Col. Hodges 
to report to him at Newmarket bridge. Col. 
Hodges reached there about 9 o'clock p. m. when 
Gen. Magruder ordered to his command two other 
infantry companies and two companies of cavalry, 
and directed him to proceed to Hampton and de- 
stroy the town. He reached Hampton about 11 
p. m. He found every thing as still as death, and 
not a sound to be heard excepting the sound of 
the horses feet and occasionally the clanking of 
a sabre. He marched his men into St. John's 
Church yard, dismounted his cavalry and sent a 
picket guard to the bridge leading to Old Point. 
Here the enemy's picket guard opened fire, and 
for some time there was an active firing, but no 
serious harm was done and the enemy withdrew. 
Then the work of destroying the town commenced. 
Col. Hodges, in his account of the expedition to his 
wife, says: 

"It grieved me sorely to have to destroy the 
town; but I believe it is all for the best, as it em- 
barasses the enemy very much and takes from them 
elegant winter quarters whilst our troops will have 
to suffer in log huts and tents. I went into many 
houses which formerly had been well taken care of; 
the furniture was broken to pieces and scattered all 
through the house. They were filled with filth 



99 



of every description, and most obscene expressions 
written all over the walls. If I had lived and owned 
a house there I would willingly have applied the 
torch to it rather than have had it desecrated in 
the way the whole town had been." 

The regiment was afterwards stationed for a 
while at Mulberry Island, and also at Lands End. 
In May, 1862, it was ordered to Suffolk and was 
there made a part of Armistead's brigade. On 
the reorganization of regiments in the spring of 
1862 Adjutant Evans was made Lieutenant Colonel 
and C. W. Finley was made Adjutant of the Four- 
teenth Virginia regiment; and Lieutenant Colonel 
David J. Godwin was made Colonel of the Ninth 
Virginia regiment. The brigade now marched to 
Petersburg, where the Ninth Virginia was made a 
part of it. It then moved to Richmond and then 
to a camp on the Williamsburg road below Rich- 
mond. It was at Seven Pines, but only slightly 
engaged on the second day of the battle. The 
brigade was at Malvern Hill and engaged in that 
memorable charge. Col. Hodges thus speaks of 
it: 

"The battle of Tuesday, July 1, was the most 
terrific that can be conceived of. My imagination 
never pictured anything to equal it. I lost in killed 
and wounded on that day about one-fourth of my 
regiment. They all acted nobly. Men never fought 
better. The battle flag of the regiment which we 
carried into the fight has forty-seven shot holes 
in it ; and every man in my color guard wounded. 
During a charge a shell burst near me, killing two 



100 



of my men, wounding Capt. Bruce so severely that 
he only survived twenty-four hours, wounded sev- 
eral others, knocked me down and burnt all the 
beard off the right side of my face, scorched the 
sleeve of my coat from my hand up. The shock 
was so great that I did not recover from it for sev- 
eral hours." 

From this description you can form some idea of 
that terrible battle in which our forces attempted 
to dislodge the enemy from the crown of Malvern 
Hill, defended by fifty pieces of artillery and com- 
pact lines of infantry, raking an open field for three- 
fourths of a mile. Brave men of this city, of my 
own regiment, the Ninth Virginia, poured out on 
that battle field that rich blood which even at this 
late day brings sorrow to hearts still beating. 

The Fourteenth regiment remained in the 
neighborhood of Shirley until Gen. McClellan em- 
barked his forces and left for Washington. It then 
went to Hanover Junction, then through Louisa 
county and on to join Lee's army, which it did on 
the upper Rappahannock. It was at Second 
Manassas and was in the Maryland campaign. 

The battle of Sharpsburg was fought on Wed- 
nesday, the 17th of September, 1862, from 3 a. m. 
to night. The two armies held their respective 
positions all the next day without firing a gun. 
Lee crossed the Potomac into Virginia early on 
the morning of the 19th. Col. Hodges writing on 
the 22nd of September, 1862, in Berkley county, 
near Martinsburg, says that General Armistead 
was wounded early on the morning of the 17th 



101 



and that he took command of the brigade and that 
he was still in command, but expected Gen. Arm- 
istead to be able to return to duty in a few days. 
Gen. Early in his official report of the battle says: 
"Shortly after the repulse of the enemy Col. 
Hodges, in command of Armistead's brigade, re- 
ported to me, and I placed it in line in the position 
occupied by my brigade and placed the latter in 
line on the edge of the plateau which has been 
mentioned and parallel to the Hagerstown road 
but under cover." This battle was the most de- 
structive battle of the war for the time engaged. 

In his letter last mentioned Col. Hodges says: 
"We have had a very hard time since we left Rich- 
mond. I have not slept in a tent since leaving there 
and have only been in three houses. We eat what- 
ever we can get and sometimes the quality is any- 
thing but good and the supply scanty. This army 
has accomplished wonders and undergone the 
greatest amount of fatigue." 

On the 15th of October, 1862, Armistead's brigade 
was encamped near Winchester, Va. On that day 
Col. Hodges writes : "On Monday last we had a 
grand review of our division, by Gen. Longstreet, 
who commands our corps d'armie. There were 
two members of the British Parliament present. 
We had about ten thousand men in line, and the 
whole passed off very well. It was quite an im- 
posing sight. I suppose the Englishmen did not 
know what to make of such a dirty, ragged set of 
fellows. The orders forbade the barefooted men 
from going out. I think they ought to have let our 



102 



army be seen just as it is. I have now some eighty 
men without shoes, notwithstanding that I have 
within the past ten days issued to my regiment 
one hundred pairs." 

Burnside had superseded Gen. McClellan in the 
command of the Union army, and was now moving 
towards Fredericksburg. When this intention 
manifested itself, our forces concentrated in the 
neighborhood of Culpepper Courthouse. Our 
brigade was ordered thitherward. I remember the 
first day's long, severe march. The first day's 
march is always trying to soldiers who have been 
in camp for weeks. Speaking of the shoeless con- 
dition of the army, I remember an incident that 
occurred under. my very eyes. I beg to mention 
it. Moses Young, a member of my regiment from 
this city, as he marched along the road, saw a dis- 
carded old pair of shoes. He stopped and looked at 
them and then at his own shoes. He took them 
up, turned them over, and then looked again at 
the old shoes he had on. It was evidently with 
him a close question as to which pair had the ad- 
vantage. He finally shook off his old shoes and 
put on the pair which a preceding comrade had 
discarded as worthless. The wearer of these old 
shoes was a patriotic and gallant soldier. 

When our brigade arrived at Culpepper Court- 
house, it was in Gen. Anderson's division. It was 
here on November 7, 1862, that Armistead's 
brigade was placed in the new formed division of 
Gen. Pickett and all the Virginia regiments in An- 
derson's division were taken from it and Southern 



103 



regiments substituted in their place. It was here 
that John S. Jenkins, of this city, on the 17th of 
November, 1862, entered on his duties as adjutant 
of the Fourteenth Virginia, appointed in the place 
of Adjutant G. W. Finley, who resigned to go 
home to attend to the affairs of his father, who 
had recently died. He subsequently joined Gar- 
nett's brigade and was at Gettysburg and there 
captured. He afterwards became a distinguished 
Presbyterian minister and held the title of D. D. 
On the 21st of November, 1862, Armistead's 
brigade left Culpepper Courthouse, and reached 
camp near Fredericksburg on the 23rd. The 
brigade was in line of battle on the 13th of De- 
cember, 1862, when Burnside crossed the Rappa- 
hannock and attacked our forces, but it was not 
actively engaged. It wintered at Guinea Station on 
the Richmond and Fredericksburg road. In the 
spring it was ordered to Suffolk, from there it was 
ordered to join Lee's army then ready to com- 
mence its march into Pennsylvania. 

Col. Hodges, writing on the 9th of June, 1863, 
from Spottsylvania county, says : "We left Han- 
over Junction yesterday morning and have pro- 
ceeded forty miles on our way to join Gen. Lee, 
either in Culpepper county or beyond if he has 
crossed the upper Rappahannock. We have now 
been marching every day for a week, averaging a 
full day's march of seventeen or eighteen miles 
every day. My men are in excellent condition, and 
I know will perform their whole duty should they 
be required to meet the enemy. So you may ex- 



104 



pect to hear a grand account of the regiment; and 
I am proud to say that it has always done well, and 
in some instances far excelled those they were 
thrown with." 

Pickett's division pushed hurriedly on to catch 
up with Lee's advancing army. The division was 
at Chambersburg on the 1st day of July engaged 
in ordinary camp drill, while Lee's advanced forces 
were engaged in severe battle at Gettysburg. It 
left the next morning for Gettysburg, and arrived 
in the afternoon at a camping ground between 
Cashtown and Gettysburg. Only three brigades of 
the division were present, Kemper's, Garnett's and 
Armistead's. The field officers of the Fourteenth 
Virginia were, at this time, Col. James Gregory 
Hodges, Lieut. Col. William White, Major Robert 
Poore, and Adjutant John S. Jenkins. Early on the 
morning of July 3 these brigades were taken to the 
battle line. I will not undertake here to describe 
Pickett's charge. This was done in an address de- 
livered before this camp on November 7, 1894, pub- 
lished in the Southern Historical Society Papers, 
Vol. XXXIII, p. 118. 

The charge of Pickett's division, made up entire- 
ly of Virginians, is recognized the world over as 
unsurpassed in all the annals of history for steadi- 
ness of march, unwavering courage, and for the 
patriotic, calm determination to do all that was 
possible to be done to win victory at any sacrifice 
of life. All know the awful fatality among the 
officers and men of the division. Of its generals, 
Garnett was killed, Armistead fatally wounded, and 



105 



Kemper desperately wounded. Of its colonels of 
regiments six were killed outright on the field : 
Hodges, Edmonds, Magruder, Williams, Patton, 
Allen, and Owens and Stuart were mortally 
wounded. Three lieutenant colonels were killed: 
Calcott, Wade and Ellis. Five colonels, Hunton, 
Terry, Garnett, Mayo and Aylett were wounded, 
and four lieutenant colonels, commanding regi- 
ments, Carrington, Otey, Richardson and Martin, 
were wounded. Of the whole complement of field 
officers in fifteen regiments one only, Lieut. Col. 
Joseph C. Cabell, escaped unhurt. Of the field offi- 
cers of the Fourteenth Virginia, Col. Hodges, Maj. 
Poore and Adjutant John S. Jenkins were killed, 
and Lieut. Col. William White was wounded. 

Col. Hodges led his regiment in this memorable 
charge with conspicuous courage and gallantry. 
He was an able and experienced officer. His devo- 
tion to his official duties were never surpassed. His 
regiment was never in the presence of the enemy 
without his being there in command. His officers 
and men were devoted to him. He fully enjoyed 
their admiration, esteem and confidence. Many 
letters to him in life and after his death to his 
widow, convey unqualified appreciation of him as a 
man and a commander. His family made every 
effort to ascertain where his body was buried, but 
all in vain. He sleeps in the trenches with those 
who made that charge of Pickett's division im- 
mortal. He was the idol of his family, admired 
and loved by them with an affection and devotion 
which words fail to convey. For their sake and 



106 



for the sake of those survivors here who knew him, 
I make as a part of this address a touching incident 
of the reunion of the association of Pickett's divi- 
sion at Gettysburg on the 3rd of July, 1887, as pub- 
lished at the time in the Landmark : 

"Adjutant J. F. Crocker, of the Ninth Virginia, in 
the course of his remarks, in receiving from Col. 
Andrew Cowan, of Cowan's Battery, the sword of 
the young unknown Confederate officer who fell 
within a few feet of the guns of the battery, while 
giving the order: "Men! take these guns," alluded 
to the sad memories awakened by the scenes of the 
day. In this connection, and as illustrative of 
them, he had come to the battlefield of Gettysburg 
bearing a sacred request from the invalid widow 
of a gallant Confederate officer who was killed in 
the charge of Pickett's division, asking him to 
make a prayer at the spot where her dear husband 
fell for his long sorrowing widow and orphan sons, 
with the hope that God, in some way, would bless 
the prayer to their good. That gallant officer was 
Col. James Gregory Hodges, of the Fourteenth 
Virginia regiment, the brother of the speaker's 
wife. He stated that early and careful but unavail- 
ing efforts had been made to find the place of his 
burial and he now desired to find and have identi- 
fied the spot where he fell. The simple story 
brought tears to many who stood around. When 
the speaker closed his address, General H. J. Hunt, 
chief of artillery of the Union army, in whom kind- 
ness and courage are equal virtues, came promptly 
forward and gave his hand warmly to Adjutant 



107 



Crocker and in sympathetic tones said, "I can tell 
you something of Colonel Hodges, of the Four- 
teenth Virginia; I can carry you to the very spot 
where he fell." The general said that immediately 
after the battle, hearing that General Garnett, 
whom he knew in the old army, had been killed, 
he went out to look for him and when he came to 
the stone wall a long line of Confederate dead and 
wounded, lying along the wall, met his view, but 
his attention was arrested by the manly and hand- 
some form of an officer lying dead on his back 
across other dead. He thought he had seen the 
face before, and on inquiry was told that it was 
Col. Hodges of the Fourteenth Virginia, whom he 
remembered to have seen in social circles before 
the war. The spot where Col. Hodges fell was 
identified by General Hunt and others, and is at 
the stone wall near the monument of the Sixty- 
ninth Pennsylvania. With General Hunt and other 
Union officers and men standing around, uncov- 
ered, a brief prayer was made that God would re- 
member and bless the widow and sons of the brave 
officer who fell at this spot, but now rests in an 
unknown grave. It was a sad, solemn scene, full 
of touching pathos. The sun was sinking beyond 
Seminary Ridge, with its slanting rays mellowing 
the sheen of the grain waving fields, while here 
and there were groups of Union and Confederate 
veterans, mingling in peaceful, heartfelt and fra- 
ternal accord." 

There is another incident, which I must here 
relate. 



108 



In October, 1903, Senator John W. Daniel, who 
knew my relation to Colonel Hodges and that he 
was killed in Pickett's charge, was in the National 
Library at Washington, engaged in getting official 
information for a future paper on "The Virginians 
at Gettysburg," and seeing in the library a man 
whose appearance attracted him, he said to him- 
self — that man is a Northern man and was an offi- 
cer in the war and I will speak to him ; and he ap- 
proached him. His conjecture was right. It was 
Capt. John D. S. Cook, of the Eightieth New York 
regiment of volunteers, known, however, in the 
service as the Twentieth New York State 
Militia. He informed Senator Daniel that Col. 
Hodges fell at the stone fence, within less than 
one hundred and fifty feet of the Federal line, 
directly in front of the said New York regi- 
ment ; that after the struggle was ended his 
body was discovered and identified as Col. 
James Gregory Hodges, of the Fourteenth 
Virginia regiment, by some papers found upon it. 
His sword and scabbard had been destroyed by a 
shot, but a soldier detached his sword belt and 
handed it to him and that he had kept it as a treas- 
ured relic of the battle to be an heirloom in his 
family. He stated to Senator Daniel that if any 
of the family of Col. Hodges still survived he would 
gladly send it to them. Senator Daniel at once 
wrote me, giving me an account of this interview 
with Capt. Cook and his address at Kansas City, 
Mo. I wrote him, informing him that Mrs. Sarah 
A. F. Hodges, the widow of Col. Hodges, was liv- 



109 



ing and that she would ever appreciate his kind 
offer. Capt. Cook sent at once to her the sword 
belt with a letter of noble sentiments and sym- 
pathy. This sword belt is the same that Col. 
Hodges wore when his picture was taken, which 
now hangs in Mrs. Hodges' room. The noble act 
of Capt. Cook is tenderly appreciated by every 
member of the family. A correspondence with 
Capt. Cook has given me a high estimate of his 
character and ability. He moved from New York 
to Kansas City at the close of the war, where he 
has practiced law with eminent success and dis- 
tinction. 

Col. Hodges was handsome and manly in ap- 
pearance. He had dark hair, bright dark eyes, and 
a highly intellectual face. He was gentle in man- 
ners, and he ever bore himself with kindness to 
others. He had a generous and noble nature, and 
he enjoyed, in a high degree, the esteem and con- 
fidence of the community. His leading character- 
istic to the public was his high sense of duty and 
his strict observance of it. He illustrated this in 
his conduct as colonel of his regiment. Under 
trying temptations, which involved the tenderest 
feelings of his heart, he still held that to be with 
his regiment was his supreme duty — a duty which 
he recognized as due to his position and to his 
country. He was ardently patriotic and his whole 
being, convictions and feelings were with the Con- 
federate cause. 

But the fairest, sweetest phase of his character 
was found in his domestic life. No one can read 



110 



those letters he wrote in every camp, on every 
march, before and after every battle — written to a 
tender loving wife whom he idolized and about his 
darling little boys, without realizing that all his 
highest happiness and interest centered in these 
loved ones. His son, John Nelson Hodges, died on 
the 21st day of July, 1890, and his son, William 
Wilson Hodges, died on the 26th day of April, 
1893, unmarried — thus leaving their widowed 
mother now childless — an added grief, which, like 
that other, is ever present in the heart, but bravely 
borne with that resignation which comes from the 
sanctifying faith that God does all things well. 

Again I commend to the keeping of Heaven, as 
I did on the battlefield of Gettysburg that saintly 
wife and mother, whose sorrows and piety have 
made her a priestess, and her room to all who 
know her well, a sanctuary of God. 



RESPONSE TO THE TOAST: 

"OUR CONFEDERATE DEAD" 



Response to the Toast: 
"OUR CONFEDERATE DEAD" 



Our dead need no eulogy. Like those who fell 
at Thermopylae, their fame is fixed forever — the 
symbol of heroism and patriotic devotion. The 
summation of all praise, of all the glowing tributes 
which poetry or impassioned eloquence can pay to 
them and to their deeds is, THEY MADE DE- 
FEAT AS ILLUSTRIOUS AS VICTORY. This 
is the greatest of human achievements, and to the 
full height of which the heroic of no past age have 
ever reached. It was accomplished — it could only 
have been accomplished — by men who combined in 
themselves the highest qualities of the hero and 
the patriot with the best elements of a chivalric 
race — by men having the profoundest sense of the 
righteousness of their cause and who believed that 
they were serving alike the ends of their God and 
their country. What the South, what the whole 
country, owes to their great achievement we can- 
not now approximately estimate. We will have to 
leave that to time and to the observant thought of 
History. Some of its obvious results we see. To 
one of these I will allude. To it we owe the 
prompt, contented, and enduring peace and frater- 
nal accord which followed the close of the war. By 
reason of it the South was enabled to yield cheer- 
fully to the results without any touch of humilia- 
tion or self reproach. The South felt that her 



114 



armies by their splendid action, courage, and 
prowess, had not only vindicated her honor and 
sustained her pride, but had achieved a wealth of 
renown that more than compensated her for all she 
had lost, yea, compensated her for the very death 
of her dead. And thus feeling, the South has met 
the obligations of a restored Union with a frank, 
open, and truly loyal spirit. To the South the 
glory involved in this great achievement must ever 
be a priceless, imperishable heritage, which will 
continue to enrich the blood, and exalt and en- 
noble the spirit of our posterity to the remotest 
times. The production and maintenance of a 
brave, true, patriotic, and pious race of men on this 
globe, is the ultimate aim and consummation of its 
creation. May we not believe that the people of 
the South, who received the baptism and conse- 
cration of suffering, of fire and blood, by being 
true to the memory of their illustrious dead, and 
inspired by their great deeds, shall be of that race 
which shall reach the height of that consumma- 
tion, and sway the scepter and wear the crown of 
the ultimate civilization of the world. 

I am not seeking by this line of thought to ag- 
grandize the glory of the South at the expense of 
the North. Far otherwise. We are one people of 
a common race. The courage, heroism, and pa- 
triotic devotion of the armies of the North have 
added new and imperishable glory to the history 
of the country, in which with equal pride we claim 
a share. It is not a matter of subtraction. It is a 
matter of addition of the matchless courage and 



115 



prowess of the two armies, which sent a thrill of 
admiration around the world and which constitute 
today the glory of our American arms. It is the 
inspiration of great achievements and of great sac- 
rifices paid to the love of country on both sides 
that we feel in common. 

But what most becomes this occasion is not to 
speak of but to be with our dead tonight. Com- 
rades, let us have a reunion with them. Let us in 
thought and feeling go back to the time when we 
were by their side — by their side on the weary 
marches, around the camp fires and in the fierce 
charges of battle. Yea, more ; let us be ourselves 
again. Let us enter into that community of 
thought, feeling and aspiration that made them 
and ourselves one. Let us catch again the spirit 
of that lofty patriotism with which we all took up 
arms, and of that devotion with which we bore 
them. Let us in contact with our dead feel once 
more that divine flame that burned like an altar 
fire on our hearts — that master passion of our 
lives which left to the future nothing to so move us 
again — our all absorbing — all swaying — yet ten- 
der, fond love of the Confederacy. My God ! may 
it not be permitted to us blamelessly for one brief 
moment to feel again that love, which to us was 
as holy as our religion — dearer than our lives — 
and in which there throbbed all that the human 
heart can feel for home and country. 

Comrades, let us go back to those scenes. Our 
dead will meet us there. Feel you not, echoing 
upon your hearts a spirit sound? It is a drum- 



116 



beat from that far off, eternal camping-ground of 
our dead. Comrades, they are falling into meet us. 
Let us go. * * * * 

Friends, pardon us, they are our brothers, dearer 
than brothers in blood. No one knows — the world 
cannot know — how we loved them — with what 
tenderness we cherish their memories, and with 
what fidelity we would keep eternal wardship over 
their honor and over their fame. 

There they sleep — on fields made immortal by 
their valor. More than a third of a century lies 
between them and us. What a change ! And 
here we are tonight — Veterans of the Confederacy 
and Veterans of the Union — host and guest, at a 
common festive board in patriotic accord — broth- 
ers in a common citizenship — equal — sharing with 
equal pride the greatness and the lustre with which 
American valor — North and South, has imperish- 
ably crowned this great Republic of freedom — all 
made possible, seemly, and hearty, by that great, 
unequaled achievement of our dead, in MAKING 
DEFEAT AS ILLUSTRIOUS AS VICTORY. 

What more can we ask for our beloved dead 
than that all America honor their memory, and 
that the world and history acknowledge that their 
heroic deeds have exalted the greatness, the glory, 
and the fame of the nation. 



Citizenship— Its Rights and Duties 



AN ADDRESS DELIVERED 
BEFORE THE YOUNG MEN'S 
CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF 
PORTSMOUTH : VIRGINIA 
FEBRUARY 21ST, 1895 



CITIZENSHIP — ITS RIGHTS AND DUTIES 



The word "citizen," in its popular sense means 
resident, inhabitant or person. In a political sense 
it means one who owes allegiance to a sovereign 
or to a sovereign power. One is a citizen of that 
country or State to which he owes this allegiance. 
Citizenship is the inter-mutual relation between 
the sovereign power and the citizen, and it implies 
protection and care on one side and obedience and 
duty on the other. 

We are citizens of a dual government, and, as 
such, we have a dual citizenship. We are citizens 
of Virginia and are at the same time citizens of 
the United States. The statute law of Virginia de- 
clares who shall be its citizens. It enacts that: 
"All persons born in this State, all persons born in 
any other State of the Union who may be or be- 
come residents of this State; all aliens naturalized 
under the laws of the United States who may be 
or become residents of this State; all persons who 
have obtained a right of citizenship under former 
laws; and all children, wherever born, whose 
father, or if he be dead, whose mother shall be a 
citizen of this State at the time of the birth of such 
children, shall be deemed citizens of this State." 
Code, Section 39. The Constitution of the United 
States prescribes who shall be its citizens. It pro- 
vides — "All persons born or naturalized in the 
United States, and subject to the jurisdiction 



120 



thereof are citizens of the United States, and of 
the State wherein they reside." Section 1, Article 
XIV. 

The United States and Virginia in their respect- 
ive relations to us as citizens are both sovereign ; 
and to each we owe allegiance. But our relations 
as citizens to them respectively differ, but do not 
conflict. To understand fully this dual nature of 
our citizenship we must recur to the origin of the 
United States. When the thirteen original colo- 
nies achieved their independence, each of them be- 
came absolutely a sovereign State, independent of 
each other and of all other political sovereignties ; 
and in the treaty of peace with Great Britain, the 
independence of each was separately recognized 
and named. 

During the War of Revolution for the purpose 
of common defense these States formed a Confed- 
eration by the adoption of what are known as the 
articles of Confederation. These constituted in 
fact nothing more than a treaty of amity, of com- 
merce and of alliance between independent States. 
After the war it soon became evident that these 
articles were insufficient to maintain an efficient 
union of the States, and were inadequate to the 
necessities of a Federal Government. 

To form a more perfect Union of the States, 
each State, in its sovereign capacity, in 1787, sent 
its representatives to a general convention called 
for this purpose. This convention framed a con- 
stitution, which was submitted to the people of 
each State for ratification and adoption. The 



121 



people of the several States in their respective con- 
stitutional conventions adopted the constitution. 
This constitution was thus but a compact between 
the sovereign States. By it the people of the sev- 
eral sovereign States created the Union of the 
States and the Federal Government for its admin- 
istration. By this compact the people of the sev- 
eral sovereign States, out of their own sovereign 
powers, conferred on the Federal Government cer- 
tain powers, which powers thus delegated and con- 
ferred were a curtailment of their own powers. 
The Federal Government was a mere creature of 
the people of the States and made a common agent 
for them — to exercise certain powers thus dele- 
gated and conferred for the common welfare of all. 
The Federal Government being thus created and 
holding only delegated powers, can exercise only 
those powers expressly conferred by the Constitu- 
tion and those necessarily implied by the powers 
conferred. All other powers are denied to it, and 
are expressly reserved to the people of the several 
States. But by the Constitution itself, the Consti- 
tution of the United States and all laws made pur- 
suant thereto, are supreme and paramount to the 
constitutions and laws of the several States. Hence 
all provisions of the constitutions of the States and 
of the laws in conflict with the Constitution of the 
United States or with the laws made pursuant 
thereto, are null and void, and likewise all laws 
passed by the General Government that are not 
within the powers delegated to it, are also void, as 
being in excess of powers granted and as in con- 



122 



flict with the reserved powers of the States. Thus 
it follows that while there may be conflicting en- 
actments between the Federal and the State Leg- 
islatures, there can be no conflicting laws. The 
Federal Government is sovereign in all matters 
growing out of the powers conferred on it ; and 
the States or the people thereof are sovereign in 
all matters growing out of their reserved or un- 
delegated rights. Each is sovereign within the 
sphere of its powers. In all national affairs the 
United States Government is sovereign; in all 
State affairs the States are sovereign. As there 
can be no conflict in their respective laws, so there 
can be no conflict between themselves as sover- 
eigns. While acting within their proper powers 
they are not antagonistic to each other. They are 
harmonious. They are supplemental of each other. 
The one is the complement of the other. The two, 
in fact, make one government of the people. The 
duty we owe, as citizens, to the Federal Govern- 
ment and its laws is absolute : and the duty we 
owe to our State Government and its laws is 
equally absolute. As the laws cannot be conflict- 
ing, so our duties to each cannot be conflicting. 

We are citizens of the United States in all Fed- 
eral matters, and as to such we owe allegiance to 
the United States. We are citizens of Virginia in 
all State matters, and as to such we owe allegiance 
to Virginia. As long as the Federal and State 
Governments move within their respective spheres 
there is no such thing as a first and second allegi- 
ance. It is only in the event of a great rupture of 



123 



the relations between the two governments grow- 
ing out of the usurpation of powers, as in our late 
war, that this question of a first and second allegi- 
ance can arise. And inasmuch as the General Gov- 
ernment is the creature of the States, and holds 
only a delegated sovereignty as to the delegated 
powers, granted by the States, in such event, if it 
be the General Government that has made an 
usurpation of powers, then the delegated sover- 
eignty returns to the State to which it originally 
belonged, and with it returns the delegated allegi- 
ance. On the contrary, if it be the State that has 
usurped the powers that belong to the Federal 
Government, and the usurpation is so great as to 
bring on a conflict between the two. then in that 
event our first allegiance is due the General Gov- 
ernment. As we owe no duty to an unconstitu- 
tional law, Federal or State, so we owe no allegi- 
ance to either the Federal or State Governments 
in any matters in which they transcend their pow- 
ers. It is usurpation alone that relieves allegiance 
and dissolves the bond of union between the 
States. Hence I lay it down as the first, the high- 
est and most imperious duty of an American citi- 
zen, which term is used to denote one who is a 
citizen of a State and of the United States, to use 
all possible lawful means to keep the Federal and 
the State Governments within the limits of their 
respective powers. A citizen who does less than 
this is wanting in patriotism. One who conscious- 
ly seeks to induce the State or the United States 
to usurp powers belonging to the other, is a traitor 



124 



to the Union and to his State. Who, appreciating 
the benefits of our solar system, would seek, if he 
had the power, to sever any of the laws that bind 
the planets in harmony with each other? Who, 
appreciating the benefits of the Union, would seek 
to weaken or break a single principle that holds 
the States together? So long as the equilibrium 
of rights between the States and the Union is main- 
tained, our system of United States will move 
along as serenely, as harmoniously, as majestically 
and as splendidly as does our solar system through 
the spaces of the Universe. A like essential to our 
welfare as citizens is the preservation of the Union 
and of the States, each in all its powers. Each is 
essential to the other. Without either the whole 
system of government fails. States without the 
Union fall into weakness and anarchy. Union 
without the States falls into empire and despotism. 
The beneficence of our dual government is, that as 
to national affairs we are a republic, and as to local 
affairs we have home rule. The strength of all the 
States is combined for the defence of the States 
against foreign foes without, and against internal 
foes within. To the General Government are ex- 
clusively given the Army and Navy, the power to 
declare war and to make peace, the regulation of 
commerce with nations and of commerce between 
the States, the collection of customs, the control of 
all navigable waters and admiralty jurisdiction, and 
courts with exclusive jurisdiction over Federal 
matters. These are the great powers that make 
our General Government national, and give to it 



125 



strength, power and majesty. The reservation of 
any of these powers by the States would have in- 
volved them in constant confusion and conflict with 
each other. It is the exercise of these great pow- 
ers and others given by the Constitution to the 
General Government that has contributed so large- 
ly to the prosperity and happiness of the people, 
and has made the name of the United States so 
potent and so much respected among the nations. 
When we look around us within the borders of this 
extended republic and see the great and innumer- 
able blessing that flow from the General Govern- 
ment to each and all of us, when we regard its 
power and resources for defence, security and for 
aggression, when we contemplate the exalted posi- 
tion which our country holds among the nations 
for power and national advantages, who is it that 
does not feel his very being glow with pride and 
patriotism for the privilege to be called an Amer- 
ican citizen. Go where you may; among the 
proudest and most enlightened nations of the con- 
tinent, or among the rude and barbarous tribes of 
the far off lands, that name brings to you, if you 
deserve it, respect, consideration, honor and secu- 
rity. In these respects there has been but one 
name in history that has been more potent. To 
have been a Roman citizen carried with it for cen- 
turies more potency than was ever attached to the 
citizen of any other country. A striking and fa- 
miliar illustration of this and of the value of citi- 
zenship was given, when the Roman Chief Captain 
in Jerusalem rescued Paul from being mobbed by 



126 



the Jews, who made a great outcry against him. 
I quote from holy writ. "The Chief Captain com- 
manded Paul to be brought into the castle, and 
bade that he should be examined by scourging, 
that he might know wherefore they cried so 
against him. And as they bound him with thongs 
Paul said unto the Centurion that stood by, is it 
lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman 
and uncondemned. When the Centurion heard 
that he went out and told the Chief Captain, say- 
ing, take heed what thou doest ; for this man is a 
Roman. Then the Chief Captain came and said 
unto him : Tell me, art thou a Roman ? He said, 
yes. And the Chief Captain answered, with a great 
sum obtained I this freedom. And Paul said, but 
I was free born. Then straightway they departed 
from him which should have examined him ; and 
the Chief Captain also was afraid, after he knew 
that he was a Roman and because he had found 
him." Citizens! the time will come, if it has not 
already come, when no government or govern- 
mental official within the limits of this earth, will 
dare to bind, much less to scourge an American 
citizen uncondemned. 

The privileges and immunities which belong to 
us as citizens of the United States are under the 
care and protection of the Federal Government, 
and all its great delegated powers may be and 
should be exercised in securing them to us. 

To this great government thus created by the 
States and administered by officers elected by the 
people of the States, we owe allegiance, obedience, 



127 



service, loyalty and devotion. It is our govern- 
ment, and we should cherish it with patriotic 
fervor. 

We are citizens also of the State of Virginia. 
This implies that the State is sovereign and that 
we owe it allegiance. We have seen that the 
United States is sovereign only to the extent of 
the powers granted by the Constitution and that 
we are citizens of the United States only to the ex- 
tent and within the powers granted. Beyond these 
delegated powers, we, as citizens of the United 
States, have no privileges and immunities, nor can 
the United States secure to its citizens any right 
or privilege not placed under its jurisdiction by the 
Constitution. All rights of citizens not so granted 
and secured are left to the exclusive protection of 
the State. We derive these rights of citizens from 
the States, which retained all the residuum of sov- 
ereignty and political powers other than those 
granted to the United States, and as citizens of the 
State we are entitled to all the privileges and im- 
munities within the scope of these reserved pow- 
ers. With these privileges and immunities which 
we derive from the State, the Federal Government 
cannot interfere, nor has it any authority to en- 
large or diminish them. In the language of the 
Supreme Court of the United States in Presser vs. 
Illinois, 116, U. S. R. 268: "A State has the same 
undeniable and unlimited jurisdiction over all per- 
sons and things within its territorial limits as any- 
foreign nation, when that jurisdiction is not sur- 
rendered or restrained by the Constitution of the 



128 



United States — that by virtue of this it is not only 
the right but the bounden and solemn duty of a 
State to advance the safety, happiness and pros- 
perity of its people and to provide for its general 
welfare by any and every act of legislation which 
it may deem to be conducive to these ends, when 
the power over the particular subject or the man- 
ner of its exercise is not surrendered or restrained 
by the Constitution and laws of the United States." 
However great and many be the political pow- 
ers conferred by the people of the States on their 
General Government, they are not to be compared 
in number or importance with the political powers 
reserved by the people of the States to themselves. 
The powers delegated to the General Government 
are known; they can be numbered and their limits 
are fixed. But the reserved powers of the people 
of the State are not fully known ; they cannot be 
numbered, and they have no fixed limits. They 
come into being and into play with every new 
emergency and with every new want of the people. 
They can only be described by the general state- 
ment that the people of a State, outside of the pro- 
visions of the Constitution of the United States, 
can do everything that the life, growth and welfare 
of its people may require. So absolute sovereign 
is the will of the people of the State within the 
scope of their powers, that the people of the State 
have ever deemed it expedient to place Constitu- 
tional limitations on the powers of its own Legis- 
lature which, in the absence of such Constitutional 
limitations, would represent that sovereign will. 



129 



It would be a vain attempt to enumerate the 
manifold matters that fall within the exercise of 
these powers of the State. They are such as are 
embraced under what are termed municipal law 
and police. They cover all rights of persons, all 
rights of property, the elective franchise, the pun- 
ishment of crimes, and everything relating to the 
peace, good order, health and general welfare of 
the community. These concern us in the most in- 
timate relations of life. They secure to us the most 
sacred rights of person, of action, of speech, of con- 
science. They keep guard over our homes and 
conserve the sweet relations of the family. They 
protect us in our property, in our business, and 
give to us the peace of the Commonwealth. 

The laws of the State are made on the theory 
of allowing to the citizen the greatest liberty that 
is compatible with the general good and consistent 
with the rights of others. It is evident that this 
liberty is largest in a simple condition of society. 
But as society becomes more and more compli- 
cated, these rights of personal liberty become more 
and more limited. Society is based upon a com- 
promise or limitation of personal rights for the 
common welfare. It is fundamental that one must 
so use his own as not to injure others. 

There are but few of the original rights of man 
which do not become limited upon his becoming a 
member of society, and this limitation is increased 
by the growing complications of civilization. Much 
has been said in glittering platitudes about the in- 
alienable rights of man. Scarcely any of these 



130 



rights generally so considered are absolutely such. 
I would say only those rights are inalienable which 
in a free government can be enjoyed under all con- 
ditions without being required to be limited for the 
general welfare. 

As the primary object of government is to secure 
the best welfare of all, no individual right can be 
allowed to stand out against this welfare. In the 
necessity of the case every such right must receive 
modification when the general good requires it. 
Many illustrations in the simplest affairs of life 
readily occur to you, which show that man has no 
right, no liberty, the enjoyment of which he does 
not hold subject to limitations of law imposed for 
the general welfare. All we have as members of 
the community is regulated liberty, regulated 
rights. All that we can require is that the regula- 
tions placed on these shall be considerately and 
necessarily made in order to promote the general 
happiness . We have, however, one inalienable 
right which has come to us as a priceless heritage 
— freedom, political freedom, the freedom of mak- 
ing our own laws and of being the sole judges of 
what laws are most suitable to our own condition, 
to our habits, manners, customs and genius, and 
most conducive to our own welfare and happiness. 
It is this liberty that is to us inalienable. It is a 
heritage of which we cannot deprive our posterity 
by any binding act. In the maintenance of which 
no flow of blood is too costly, no treasury too vast, 
no sacrifices too great. Perish all rather than this 



131 



liberty should fail in our hands and be untransmit- 
ted to those who come after us. 

Seeing that in a free country the people are the 
source of all political power, and are the makers of 
their own laws, it is evident that their happiness 
and prosperity must depend upon themselves. 
Their laws and their Government must be a reflex 
of themselves. If the people be virtuous, honest, 
incorruptible and courageous — if they be watchful 
of their liberties, if they maintain a high sense of 
justice, if they be truly patriotic — then all will be 
well with them ; their laws will be wise, their gov- 
ernment pure, and their happiness secured. On 
the contrary, if the people decay in virtue — if they 
lower their sense of justice, if they become indif- 
ferent to their liberties — then Government will be- 
come corrupt, the judiciary prostituted, and public 
rights will become the sport of audacious partisans 
and of unlawful combinations. 

On the citizens of the United States and of the 
States rest the perpetuity of the Union and the in- 
tegrity of the States ; and on them rest the grave 
responsibility of good government and the general 
welfare. Every consideration of self-interest and 
of patriotism hold them to the faithful discharge 
of this most sacred and solemn trust. Let the citi- 
zens but be true to the General Government, to 
the States, and to themselves as freemen, then this 
glorious Republic of States and of the people will 
move steadily forward to its high grand destiny 
with ever increasing prosperity and happiness to 
its own citizens, lending its influence to the libera- 



132 



tion and betterment of mankind throughout the 
world. We cannot realize the future greatness 
and glory of this republic of ours. We know if it 
be true to the traditions of the Fathers, it will, by 
the beneficence of its free institutions and by its 
conservative influence, dominate the whole world 
— not in empire, but in the respect and admiration 
of the nations. Already is this country of ours, in 
its morn, the freest, greatest, happiest and most 
prosperous on the globe. And, today, the greatest 
political advantage vouchsafed to man is to be a 
citizen of the State and of the United States. This 
is yours by birth or adoption. Do not under- 
estimate the value and honor of such a citizenship. 
Let it inspire you with true loyalty and devotion. 
Give to both, the State and the United States, true 
allegiance, obedience and service, and contribute 
by an honest, pure, industrious life and faithful 
conduct your best to the common welfare, and you 
will have discharged the full duties of citizenship. 



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